Bangor Business School

Forecasting Special Events such as conflicts and epidemics is challenging because of their very nature and the limited amount of historical information from which a reference base can be built. This study evaluates the performances of Structured Analogies, the Delphi method and Interaction Groups in forecasting the impact of such events. The empirical evidence reveals that the use of Structured Analogy leads to an average accuracy improvement of 8.4% in forecasting Special Events compared to Unaided Judgment. This improvement in accuracy is greater when the use of Structured Analogies is accompanied by an increase in the level of expertise, the use of more analogies, the relevance of these analogies, and the introduction of pooling analogies through interaction with experts. Furthermore, the results from group Judgmental Forecasting approaches showed promising results; the Delphi method and Interaction Groups improved accuracy by 27% and 54.4%, respectively.

Purpose -This paper aims to draw attention to a unique paradox concerning doing an autoethnography as a PhD. On the one hand, a student may feel a pull towards revealing a vulnerable, intimate, autoethnographic self, yet on the other hand she may be pushed away from this because the oral/viva voce examination process may deny the student anonymity. Through the telling of this tale the complexities concerning self-disclosure and student autoethnography reveal are explored. Design/methodology/approach -The tale is autoethnographic: a fictionalised account based on real events and co-constructed from substantial field notes, personal diaries, e-mails, and reports. Findings -This paper contributes to relational ethics concerned with self-disclosure and the "I" of a reveal, and highlight the possibilities for developing Medford's notion of mindful slippage as a strategy for removing highly personal and possibly harmful elements within student autoethnography.

We investigated how students' interpersonal trust relationships impact on their willingness to share knowledge during group work and whether there is one best method of group allocation to maximise knowledge sharing. Through focus groups with 32 undergraduate and postgraduate students, we found: i) participants had limited experience of sharing skills; ii) they were more frequently engaged in sharing their beliefs, values and ideas, a positive aspect of group work; iii) interpersonal relationships impacted upon the degree to which knowledge sharing took place, the major contributing factor being participants' motivations and desired outcomes for their work rather than interpersonal relationships.

Abstract
Purpose – Employee engagement (EE) is a highly popular topic within workplace research, but has
been studied almost exclusively from a quantitative, survey based approach, both in academic and
consultancy led research. Yet, employee engagement is essentially an individual concept, concerning
self, and this highly personal dimension fails to be captured in positivistic surveys. This paper offers a
novel methodology in an attempt to address this deficit.
Design/methodology/approach – This complex concept needs to be studied from a more
interpretivist and ethnographic angle, acknowledging that EE exists within a cultural context. The
paper proposes the use of a contemporary, and somewhat contentious, form of ethnography,
autoethnography (AE) that weaves together the researcher’s personal and participants’ experiences to
illuminate the phenomenon.
Findings – This paper briefly reviews extant literature on employee engagement, explains
autoethnography and argues that AE is a highly suitable method to capture both the individual and
social nature of self in employee engagement.
Research limitations/implications – To understand how employee engagement works, we need
to get at the depth of the concept, and the paper offers an innovative methodological contribution to
achieve this. To date, this approach has received limited attention and only minimal anecdotal
evidence is presented to support the argument for AE. However, there is substantial scope for further
research adopting this novel, collaborative approach.
Practical implications – An autoethnographic approach provides both emic (insider) and etic
(outsider) perspectives on the phenomenon, thus harnessing both the experiences of those involved in
AE initiatives (e.g. HR practitioners managing EE and employees being engaged) but also the
researcher’s experiences and interpretations of being engaged in their work, to elicit more rich, layered
insights. Such nuanced understanding can help facilitate more appropriate, authentic and realistic
interventions to harness employees’ whole self and engagement.
Originality/value – Autoethnography provides an innovative approach to studying employee
engagement, offering an appropriate alternative to quantitative, snap-shot studies and is more in
keeping with the founding scholar’s intentions for research on this topic.
Keywords Culture, Context, Autoethnography, Self, Qualitative research, Employee engagement
Paper type Research paper

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and financial reporting quality. It also investigates the effect of Shariah screening processes on the relationship between CSR and financial reporting quality. This study uses discretionary accruals (DA) as a proxy of EM. The sample is constructed based on Thomson Reuters ASSET4 and FTSE Shariah index, having a sample of 4085 firm-year observations domiciled in Europe for the period of 2003-2011. We find that there is a positive association between CSR and financial reporting quality. In addition, the model has been re-estimated using ASSET4's pillars and categories and we observe that both of social performance and environmental performance pillars do have an effect on enhancing the quality of financial reporting. Furthermore, the findings evidence that CSR in training and development, diversity, human right, community, resource reduction and emission reduction have a significant influence on mitigating a firm's opportunistic behaviour of managing earnings using accruals, and then increasing the quality of financial reporting. On the other hand, this study examines whether CSR firms that are Shariah-compliant engage in CSR as a moral obligations and behave ethically in terms of providing high-quality financial reporting compared to CSR firms that are not Shariah-compliant. We find that CSR firms that are not Shariah-compliant are less likely to manage earnings through accruals. The results suggest that Shariah screening processes appear to have no effect on mitigating the opportunistic behaviour of involving in CSR activities for the purpose of managing earnings. This finding does not support the argument that Shariah complaint firms conducting their activities in ethical and transparent manner. This study provides a new and far-reaching addition to prior literature by assessing the association between CSR and financial reporting quality, and the impact of Shariah screening processes on mitigating managerial opportunisms of engaging in CSR and EM activities. This also contributes to the growing discussion on CSR and financial reporting quality from an Islamic ethical perspective.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and financial reporting quality. It also investigates the effect of Shariah screening processes on the relationship between CSR and financial reporting quality. This study uses discretionary accruals (DA) as a proxy of EM. The sample is constructed based on Thomson Reuters ASSET4 and FTSE Shariah index, having a sample of 4085 firm-year observations domiciled in Europe for the period of 2003-2011. We find that there is a positive association between CSR and financial reporting quality. In addition, the model has been re-estimated using ASSET4's pillars and categories and we observe that both of social performance and environmental performance pillars do have an effect on enhancing the quality of financial reporting. Furthermore, the findings evidence that CSR in training and development, diversity, human right, community, resource reduction and emission reduction have a significant influence on mitigating a firm's opportunistic behaviour of managing earnings using accruals, and then increasing the quality of financial reporting. On the other hand, this study examines whether CSR firms that are Shariah-compliant engage in CSR as a moral obligations and behave ethically in terms of providing high-quality financial reporting compared to CSR firms that are not Shariah-compliant. We find that CSR firms that are not Shariah-compliant are less likely to manage earnings through accruals. The results suggest that Shariah screening processes appear to have no effect on mitigating the opportunistic behaviour of involving in CSR activities for the purpose of managing earnings. This finding does not support the argument that Shariah complaint firms conducting their activities in ethical and transparent manner. This study provides a new and far-reaching addition to prior literature by assessing the association between CSR and financial reporting quality, and the impact of Shariah screening processes on mitigating managerial opportunisms of engaging in CSR and EM activities. This also contributes to the growing discussion on CSR and financial reporting quality from an Islamic ethical perspective.

As the evolution of e-business technology has passed from the early phase of hype and innovation to the mature phase of adoption and use, the research interest of both the academic and business communities is shifting to investigating opportunities for market exploitation of e-business technologies. As a result, the debates around established ebusiness models, as well as the way to achieve business model innovation, are ever increasing. However, while many researchers and practitioners are contemplating business models, there is a distinct lack of appropriate theoretical tools in the literature to structure and codify the extant knowledge in the area. The existing research contributions are featured by a great degree of diversity, which is due to the existence of Adamantia G. Pateli, George M. Giaglis a variety of reasons and motives for making research on business models. Thus, some researchers try to define business models, others to specify their primary elements, while others have proceeded further to introduce methodologies for developing, changing, or assessing business models. In this paper, we draw on a great number of research contributions in the field of e-business models to propose a framework that further decomposes the research area of Business Models into specific research sub-domains.

After explaining why business executives and academics should consider thinking about a rigorous approach to e-business models, we introduce a new e-Business Model Ontology. Using the concept of business models can help companies understand, communicate and share, change, measure, simulate and learn more about the different aspects of e-business in their firm. The generic e-Business Model Ontology (a rigorous definition of the e-business issues and their interdependencies in a company's business model), which we outline in this paper is the foundation for the development of various useful tools for e-business management and IS Requirements Engineering. The e-Business Model Ontology is based on an extensive literature review and describes the logic of a "business system" for creating value in the Internet era. It is composed of four main pillars, which are Product Innovation, Infrastructure Management, Customer Relationship and Financial Aspects. These elements are then further decomposed.