The revaluation of non-current assets has become an accepted accounting practice in many countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. This practice has implications for the external auditor who must decide whether to accept a valuation as reasonable and how much evidence to collect to support the decision. This thesis represents the first study to examine audit decision making in this area. Because of the absence of prior research, a series of structured interviews was undertaken with audit partners to identify the main audit issues. The results of these interviews, together with the relevant literature, were used to identify some of the factors that may impact on audit judgments concerning revalued assets. Hypotheses were developed and two complementary experiments were designed to test them. These were based on the premise that client management may be motivated to revalue in order to improve the appearance of the balance sheet, thereby increasing the inherent risk of misstatement. A 2 x 2 between-subjects design was used for both experiments, and the dependent variables measured were estimates of the planned audit hours to be spent on the revalued assets and likelihood judgments that the valuations would be accepted as reasonable. Experiment One considered the situation where auditors are faced with two conflicting risks which are likely to exist simultaneously in the audit environment. These were the threat of litigation arising from the client's breach of a debt covenant and the risk of losing the client. The study examined auditors' responses to high and low levels of these risks on the audit of revalued owner-occupied property and an investment property. For the planned audit hours, results indicated a strong interaction effect between the two factors, with auditors planning to spend significantly more time on the audit of revalued assets when both the risk of breaching a debt covenant was high and the risk of losing the client was low. Similar results were found for the likelihood judgment that the valuations would be accepted as reasonable, except that for the investment property the results were only marginally significant. Experiment Two examined the impact of a proposal to issue shares to the public and the competence of the independent valuer on the audit of four classes of non-current assets. Results indicated that auditors would plan to spend longer on the audit of revalued assets when the client proposed to make a share issue and also when the competence of the valuer was lower. They were also less likely to accept the valuations as reasonable in these cases. However, an interaction effect between class of asset and competence of the valuer indicated that concern with some aspects of the evidence could override subjects' sensitivity to the competence of the valuer. An additional finding was a significant experience effect for the likelihood judgments, based on the number of audits, in which subjects had been involved, that had included asset revaluations. More experienced subjects were more likely than less experienced subjects to accept the valuations as reasonable.

In Queensland, all state schools have the opportunity to decide the model of school-based management they would like to adopt for their school communities. For schools wishing to pursue the greatest level of school-based management, School Councils are mandatory. Because School Councils will play an important role as schools become increasingly involved in school-based management, the operations of newly formed Councils were the basis of this research. The main purpose of the study is to determine, through both literature and research, what makes an effective School Council. Although Education Queensland has identified roles and functions, as well as the rationale behind School Councils, clear guidelines to assist Councils with their implementation and to gauge the effectiveness of Councils do not exist. Because School Councils have only been implemented in Queensland for a very short period of time, there has been very little research undertaken on their operations. There are three main stages to this research. First, an extensive literature review explored the theoretical, research and policy developments in relation to school-based management and School Councils. Second, a pilot study was undertaken of an existing School Council that had been in operation for just twelve months. The final and most significant stage of the research involved multi-site case study of three newly formed School Councils, the research being conducted over a twelve-month period to obtain a longitudinal picture of their operations. Two general theoretical frameworks, based on the concepts of change theory and leadership theory, guided the research. Data from the study were analysed within these frameworks and within six focus areas that were identified from the literature and pilot study. These focus areas formed the basis for the development of criteria for the implementation of an effective School Council that were investigated in the three case studies. The focus areas were: 1. promoting the profile of the School Council within the school community; 2. developing well defined roles, responsibilities and functions of the School Council; 3. developing roles and relationships of School Council members; 4. promoting accountability, monitoring and reporting responsibilities; 5. providing training and professional development for all School Council members; and 6. improving the functioning and operations of the School Council. The research was conducted within the qualitative tradition. Specifically, the method adopted was multi-site case study. Data-collection techniques involved questionnaires, interviews with School Council members, observations of Council meetings and an analysis of Council documentation. The findings from the study outlined a number of theoretical understandings and suggested criteria to assist schools in developing a more effective Council, including examples of strategies to support their effective implementation. It is envisaged that the theoretical understandings, the suggested criteria and specific examples will be of benefit to other schools where School Councils are being formed by providing them with a structure that will assist in the beginning stages of the Council's operation.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Curriculum and Instruction. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2008. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Sept. 29, 2009). Thesis advisor: Richard L. Allington. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1982. / Also available in print.

Media criticism is studied as a concept, as critical expression and as a force for social change. The concept of media criticism is developed in relation to different forms of critical practice, theory about criticism and critique and as a part of theories about media accountability. Media criticism as a force of social change is approached by exploring concepts for the analysis of social and cultural forms of media criticism. Four kinds of media texts published in Sweden between 1998 and 2013 were analysed to investigate critical expression: television columns, reflective books on journalism written by journalists, debate articles and letters to the editor. They were studied in terms of how they address actors, content and forms of critique and responsiveness. The methodology used was reflexive interpretation mainly driven by insight, but also with an emancipative intention. Qualitative text analysis was the major method used, combined with quantitative content analysis. The concept of media criticism is developed on three levels as normative and institutional, focused on established norms and values, norm shaping and formative, focused on establishing new norms and values and openness and practice, making it possible for many people to contribute to critique. Media criticism can further be specified in three dimensions comprising its intentions, the object of critique and the process of critique. Taken together they establish different forms of criticality in which a communicative intention is seen as essential.  The dissertation shows that media criticism should be given a more independent role in relation to the media accountability frame. Critical cultures and practices should be analysed in their relations to accountability cultures and practices. The concepts of institution, formative and formation were used for analysing the social and cultural forms of media criticism, where institutions are understood as the stable forms of media criticism, formatives as the changeable forms and formations as the combination of the two. Criticism and critical practice potentially have an important role to play for change in the media, journalism and society by addressing issues in an open and reflexive way. The approach to media criticism developed in the dissertation is termed critical institutionalism and aims to bridge the gap between critical social science, the sociology of critique and institutional analysis as applied in media studies.

Concerns have long been raised about the conduct and accountability of charitable organisations, particularly the adequacy of reporting and oversight mechanisms. Consequently, charities and the institutions that monitor the sector are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their legitimacy. This thesis focuses on the ways in which risk is operationalised by the Scottish Charity Regulator and experienced by charities. In particular, it examines the nature, extent, determinants and outcomes of four types of risk: complaints concerning charity conduct, regulatory action in response to a complaint, financial vulnerability, and triggering accountability concerns. The thesis begins with a detailed review of the overlapping literatures of risk, regulation and charity theory, and the development of a contextual framework for guiding the empirical work. The thesis draws on contemporary large-scale administrative social science data derived from the regulator, supported by modest use of primary social survey and qualitative data. Findings from the four empirical chapters provide evidence that the risks explored in this research are uncommon for individual charities but are a persistent feature of the sector as a whole, and vary in predictable ways across certain organisational characteristics. The results also reveal the concern of charities with financial risks, their willingness to demonstrate transparency regarding their actions (particularly in response to complaints), and the perceived lack of regulatory burden. The thesis makes an original contribution in the form of new empirical knowledge about the charity sector, in particular through the use of large-scale administrative social science data to ‘peer under the hood’ and shine a light on aspects of charity behaviour that are often overlooked. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the key findings and comments on potential areas for future research.

Les protocoles de dissémination de contenus randomisés sont une alternative bon marché et pouvant monter en charge aux systèmes centralisés. Cependant, il est bien connu que ces protocoles souffrent en présence de comportements individualistes, i.e., de participants qui cherchent à recevoir un contenu sans contribuer en retour à sa propagation. Alors que le problème des participants égoïstes a été bien étudié dans la littérature, les coalitions de participants égoïstes ont été laissés de côté. De plus, les manières actuelles permettant de limiter ou tolérer ces comportements exigent des noeuds qu'ils enregistrent leurs interactions, et rendent public leur contenu, ce qui peut dévoiler des informations gênantes. De nos jours, il y a consensus autour du besoin de renforcer les possibilités de contrôle des usagers de systèmes informatiques sur leurs données personnelles. Cependant, en l'état de nos connaissances, il n'existe pas de protocole qui évite de divulguer des informations personnelles sur les utilisateurs tout en limitant l'impact des comportements individualistes.Cette thèse apporte deux contributions.Tout d'abord, nous présentons AcTinG, un protocole qui empêche les coalitions de noeuds individualistes dans les systèmes pair-à-pair de dissémination de contenus, tout en garantissant une absence de faux-positifs dans le processus de détection de fautes. Les utilisateurs de AcTinG enregistrent leurs interactions dans des enregistrements sécurisés, et se vérifient les uns les autres grâce à une procédure d'audit non prédictible, mais vérifiable a posteriori. Ce protocole est un équilibre de Nash par construction. Une évaluation de performance montre qu'AcTinG est capable de fournir les messages à tous les noeuds malgré la présence de coalitions, et présente des propriétés de passage à l'échelle similaires aux protocoles classiques de dissémination aléatoire.Ensuite, nous décrivons PAG, le premier protocole qui évite de dévoiler des informations sur les usagers tout en les contrôlant afin d'éviter les comportements égoïstes. PAG se base sur une architecture de surveillance formée par les participants, ainsi que sur des procédures de chiffrement homomorphiques. L'évaluation théorique de ce protocole montre qu'obtenir le détail des interactions des noeuds est difficile, même en cas d'attaques collectives. Nous évaluons ce protocole en terme de protection de l'intimité des interactions et en terme de performance en utilisant un déploiement effectué sur un cluster de machines, ainsi que des simulations qui impliquent jusqu'à un million de participants, et enfin en utilisant des preuves théoriques. Ce protocole a un surcoût en bande-passante inférieur aux protocoles de communications anonymes existants, et est raisonnable en terme de coût cryptographique. / Gossip-based content dissemination protocols are a scalable and cheap alternative to centralised content sharing systems. However, it is well known that these protocols suffer from rational nodes, i.e., nodes that aim at downloading the content without contributing their fair share to the system. While the problem of rational nodes that act individually has been well addressed in the literature, textit{colluding} rational nodes is still an open issue. In addition, previous rational-resilient gossip-based solutions require nodes to log their interactions with others, and disclose the content of their logs, which may disclose sensitive information. Nowadays, a consensus exists on the necessity of reinforcing the control of users on their personal information. Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge no privacy-preserving rational-resilient gossip-based content dissemination system exists.The contributions of this thesis are twofold.First, we present AcTinG, a protocol that prevents rational collusions in gossip-based content dissemination protocols, while guaranteeing zero false positive accusations. AcTing makes nodes maintain secure logs and mutually check each others' correctness thanks to verifiable but non predictable audits. As a consequence of its design, it is shown to be a Nash-equilibrium. A performance evaluation shows that AcTinG is able to deliver all messages despite the presence of colluders, and exhibits similar scalability properties as standard gossip-based dissemination protocols.Second, we describe PAG, the first accountable and privacy-preserving gossip protocol. PAG builds on a monitoring infrastructure, and homomorphic cryptographic procedures to provide privacy to nodes while making sure that nodes forward the content they receive. The theoretical evaluation of PAG shows that breaking the privacy of interactions is difficult, even in presence of a global and active opponent. We assess this protocol both in terms of privacy and performance using a deployment performed on a cluster of machines, simulations involving up to a million of nodes, and theoretical proofs. The bandwidth overhead is much lower than existing anonymous communication protocols, while still being practical in terms of CPU usage.

In 2006 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) introduced new legislation related to corporate governance (CG). Initial evaluation by the World Bank three years later showed relatively modest implementation of the regulations. This thesis investigates the extent to which this has been adopted over the past ten years. Saudi business has become more globalized, and a more standardised approach to CG is naturally expected by international partners and investors who must themselves justify investment. This research expands the existing literature on CG by examining the progress of countries with developing economies and relatively weak or new histories of regulated CG. This thesis explores the extent and form of the uptake of the newest generation of CG regulations, the existing roadblocks and the general current attitudes to corporate governance in KSA, examining the extent of KSA company compliance with KSA corporate governance regulations, the reasons for non-compliance when that exists, and any relevant deficits in the 2006 legislation with respect to international best practice. This is investigated through the use of a series of interviews and surveys with major Saudi organizations, as well as analysis of secondary information. The mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative data analysis was selected as providing a means to generate both benchmarking data (i.e. quantitative) and further insight as to obstacles for further adoption (i.e. qualitative). As the basis for the investigation, questions are structured around four basic pillars of corporate governance: transparency; stakeholder value; responsibility; and fairness. This linkage of these factors with organisational structure, decision-making and the overall image of the firm within the industry is combined with an examination of how CG affects Saudi business expansion and investments, particularly in relation to how parties from other countries perceive the governance of a company. This perception of governance may condition their views concerning, for example, partnering with and investing in that company. The secondary data relates to The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), Sanabil Investments and Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC). The qualitative data analysis was taken from interviews conducted from fifteen top managers of large-scale organisations. The quantitative data was collected from three organisations: Almarai, Saudi Aramco and Albaik. The overall results of the qualitative analysis and the secondary analysis showed that CG plays a vital role in business development. Quantitative analysis supported the idea that transparency, stakeholder value and corporate image are the main attributes of CG in a Saudi context, with statistical analysis indicating that both are essential to company access to private investment and market liquidity The overall findings indicate KSA’s need to improve its CG standards further, and taht whilst benchmarking of government-supported institutions such as SAMA and SABIC would be of assistance, the KSA government could play a pro-active role in encouraging businesses to expand best international corporate governance practices.

This thesis sets out to explore the reasons why individuals and communities affected by development operations are generally unable to influence and control the content of development interventions, and also how this disadvantaged position could potentially be ameliorated. The aim is to identify systematic and conceptual shortcomings at the governance level – that is, the issues that are valid on their own account and do not rely on the ideological stance about sustainable development. Accordingly, the thesis suggests four principles of accountability that, if implemented, would ensure a more balanced governance of development projects. It then explores whether and how decision-making in the context of World Bank financing currently adheres to these principles, both in terms of substantive standards of accountability and the procedural mechanisms that are put in place to uphold these standards. The analysis goes beyond the classic emphasis on the World Bank’s founding treaties, or enforcement of operational policies through the Inspection Panel. Instead, the thesis introduces the distinction between general (public international and domestic law), specialized (operational policies) and project-specific (agreements) rules, which, it is argued, are all directly relevant in the context of individual interventions. The notion of ‘project law’ is suggested as a helpful theoretical construct that enables such an analysis across traditional categories of sources. On the whole, ‘project law’ emphasizes the problematic link between different rules at the project level and points towards some fundamental difficulties of ensuring accountability for development transactions. The key argument of the thesis is that affected persons should be explicitly recognised under ‘project law’ and that such status could be useful in devising a system of accountability at the project level. It is also suggested that the governance of development interventions would benefit from better defined and more stringent public law rules and procedures, since these would clarify the limits of contractual freedom within ‘project law’. As a result of such greater certainty, it would be easier to hold decision-makers to account. Under the current system of World Bank financing, such improvements would be contingent primarily on the will of those who hold decision-making power, and their consent to be subjected to a more stringent accountability regime. In other words, whilst the legal tools may exist, there is also a need for the political will to use them.