Volume 5, numéro 1, june 2002

EN :

Research and Development has changed forever. At one time, laboratories were filled with PhDs who were hired by corporations to develop new technology and address a very general, perceived future need. Today, all that has changed. R & D has become a strategic, competitive tool for corporations to gain market, as well as market share, through new products or innovative processes. In this paper we discuss the R&D challenges that corporations are facing for developing a competitive strategy in an age of global capitalism.

EN :

This study examines constituent participation in the accounting standards setting process in Canada to determine whether the positions of auditors and their clients relative to new accounting standards proposals are independent of each other. Using responses to the ten accounting exposure drafts receiving the highest public responses, the active role of Big Eight (now Big Five) firms is underscored. For all responses, significant agreement between Big Eight/Five auditors and their clients in their respective positions on proposed new accounting standards is found. However, domination of the process by Big Eight/Five firms through indirect influence of their clients' responses to individual exposure drafts is not supported. Disagreements among Big Eight /Five firms and between Big Eight/Five firms and their clients are found. Overall test results indicate that relative to the core issues on which new accounting standards are needed, auditors and their clients generally respond independently, even if there were some new proposals on which they had the same views. The findings suggest that independent corporate and audit-firm motivations explain the decision to participate in the accounting standards setting process. The real motivations for the active participation in the process by auditors and corporations are subjects for continued research.

EN :

North-South joint ventures are initiated more and more nowadays. One justification for their creation is the acquisition of new know-how, with the aim of developing new competencies that favour a better competitiveness. Nevertheless, strategic learning in a North-South joint venture context still remains a poorly known area. The present research proposes examining the learning practices used by these joint ventures to see if they develop strategic competencies. The results of the research show that these practices are characteristic of vicarious learning and that new developed competencies are not profoundly strategic. The research therefore proposes a much more profound learning model that ultimately leads to the development of strategic competencies.