Introduction to the Virtual Special Issue on Accounting & Regulation

Journal of Management and Governance -     

The new dependency: Technological change and socioeconomic restructuring in Latin America

This article analyzes the implications for the Latin American societies of the ongoing restructuring of the world economy, which is driven by the accelerated application of science and technology to the production process. After a short review of the current developments at the regional level, the article focuses on Mexico and Bolivia. These two extreme cases, ranging from high-technology industries on the United States-Mexico border to the growth of an underground economy based in the production of coca and cocaine, allow the analysis of new forms of dependency that are already constraining the economic adjustment and the democratization process in Latin America.     

Anti‐American Resistance in Latin America: An Issue of Sovereignty,Militarization, and Neoliberalism

In recent years, Latin America has experienced a shift toward the left, bringing attention to the significance of US‐Latin America relations and the history of resistance that these dynamics have engendered. While the voices and faces of these resistance movements may be perceived as new, their roots date back to the turn of the 20th century. The emergence of an anti‐American narrative from diverse sectors in Latin America as part of a response to US policies – political, military, and economic – provides an opportunity for reflection on this history. By examining US policy towards Latin America, and the emerging forms of resistance from local sectors in response to policies on sovereignty, militarism, and neoliberalism, we can better situate the ‘anti‐American’ resistance movements of today.     

Long- and short-term affective states in happiness: Age and sex comparisons

Data from 690 persons in three adult age groups were used to evaluate the generality of a componential model of happiness (Kozma et al., 1990). The model postulates that long- and short-term affective states combine in an additive manner to produce current happiness. The short-term components should be more susceptible to environmental manipulation than the long-term ones and should change more readily with an appropriate experimental manipulation. Subscales of the Memorial University Mood Scale (MUMS) were used to assess short-term affect while the experience subscales of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH) and Diener's Long-term Satisfaction Scale were used to measure long-term affect. Overall current happiness was assessed by a seven-point avowed happiness rating scale. The Velten mood induction procedure was used to manipulate current affective state. In five of six comparisons, changes on short-term components were significantly greater than on long-term components. Age differences in reactivity to mood induction emerged only when a negative induction procedure was followed by a positive one. Under these conditions, the youngest cohort responded more consistently than the oldest cohort. An additive model, based on long- and short-term affect, age, and sex produced the best explanation for current happiness.     

Perceived factors of family planning clinic performance and service quality

As part of a larger operations research project, this 1990 study analyzed the performance of the Philippine Department of Health's (DOH) family planning (FP) clinics. Specific study objectives were 1) to measure acceptor targets, servicing capacity utilization, outreach, and costs; 2) to determine what providers believed affected performance; 3) to record which quality indicator providers use; and 4) to determine the perceptions of acceptors about clinic personnel, the clinic as a FP outlet, FP service processing, and FP service quality. Data were gathered from clinic records and from sample surveys in 25 clinics in four specified locations. Eight clients were sampled from each of the 100 clinics. It was found that clinic staff accepted low attainment of FP acceptor targets and that clinic capacity utilization levels were at 25% of capacity. Providers were unaware of the number of potential FP acceptors in their areas and had no information about the costs of running their clinics. The FP clinic managers identified 34 major determinants of clinic performance, but more than half reported that they had very little control over these determinants. The providers described quality service from the point of view of the acceptors and described the quality of a clinic in terms of the minimal physical characteristics required. The acceptor survey revealed that acceptor satisfaction depends upon 1) clinic accessibility and lay-out, 2) intensive personal contact, and 3) clinic infrastructure. The study uncovered a need for the DOH to institute management training programs for clinic managers and to provide managers with the resources and personnel to shift priorities in favor of FP coverage and prevalence. Managers, who are resource allocators, must also receive information about the costs of FP services in their clinics. In addition, the DOH's determination that its FP program would be facility- rather than community-based should be modified to incorporate community outreach elements. The DOH can also make a big impact on perceptions of quality (of both providers and acceptors) by improving clinic conditions to meet basic standards. Once these basic needs are met, additional needs of acceptors can and must be addressed.     

Current trends in medicalisation: Universalising ADHD diagnosis and treatments

There is a wide sociological debate that documents how inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsive behaviours from a certain point forward cease to be disturbing behaviours and become childhood psychiatric disorders—named attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD)—to be responded to with specific treatments since these behaviours are supposed to have a negative or pervasive impact on social and personal functioning and quality of life. Looking back over the stages of this debate, the article will focus on what, in recent years, are the two main directions of the expansion of the domain of medicalisation: on the one hand, discussing how the ADHD category has changed by moving from being typically a childhood problem to a disorder that can affect adults and, on the other, how it tends to globalise conquering new markets outside the United States, Canada, and Australia. The article concludes commenting on how the processes of lifelong expansion and worldwide diffusion is universalising the medical category, overcoming the disciplinary and geographical boundaries in which ADHD was created and developed.     

REDUTEX: a hybrid push–pull production system approach for reliable delivery time in knitting SMEs

The textile sector is composed of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) worldwide. Nowadays there is a shortage of technological knowledge in SMEs. Lead time is a critical indicator in any productive company organisation. The aim of this research was to provide an approach, called REDUTEX, based on theoretical concepts of lean and synchronous manufacturing in order to help to understand the behaviour of SMEs and to improve the manufacturing process by reducing the customer lead times. The integration of these philosophies is the basis of REDUTEX; a hybrid push–pull production system approach to knitting SMEs. With this approach, it is possible to obtain a process reliability when the restrictive resource capacity (RRC) is identified, optimised and protected. By synchronising all activities to the rhythm of RRC, through a continuous flow, it is possible to obtain high-impact results through a dual automated system and product quality, through a visual control. REDUTEX uses a push system from the RRC to the location of the supermarket, where accumulated inventory may be distributed in the internal assembly department and external family workshops, making a pull system. Subsequent re-assembly processes use a push system until the end of the product. The stages of REDUTEX are explicitly described and applied to real data, so that the staff of SMEs can easily understand the behaviour of the process and implement it. One of the advantages of REDUTEX is that it does not need highly trained staff. The research methodology was conducted as a case of study in twelve SMEs and validated and implemented in three textile companies of the southern area of the state of Guanajuato in Mexico, obtaining reliable delivery times and very promising results.     

Marginal Contributions and Externalities in the Value

Our concern is the extension of the theory of the Shapley value to problems involving externalities. Using the standard axiom systems behind the Shapley value leads to the identification of bounds on players' payoffs around an “externality‐free” value. The approach determines the direction and maximum size of Pigouvian‐like transfers among players, transfers based on the specific nature of externalities that are compatible with basic normative principles. Examples are provided to illustrate the approach and to draw comparisons with previous literature.