Jesús Ramírez Sobrino

Audit Workplace Simulations as a Methodology to Increase Undergraduates' Awareness of Competences.

ABSTRACT This paper describes an audit workplace simulation and investigates its effects on students’ perceptions of competences, required as important in the auditing industry. Within the competence-based teaching framework, this training activity involves cooperative learning as it combines first-undergraduate and senior students within one team. First, we explore how some key competences are initially appreciated by first-year students. Second, our research empirically assesses how the simulation modifies students’ awareness of those competences. Results of the pretest reveal that senior students’ awareness on key competences is higher than of first-undergraduate students. In particular, communication skills are initially not considered as relevant by the first-year students. Results of the posttest reveal that our intervention significantly improves first-undergraduates’ awareness of technical accounting knowledge and communication skills.

Consumers’ Perception of Corporate Sustainable Activities: An Analysis of the German and the Spanish Consumer

This study focuses on the consumer’s perceived corporate sustainable activities in a cross-national comparison, contrasting German (n = 486) and Spanish (n = 503) consumers. We find German respondents to perceive a higher corporate sustainable behavior and better provided sustainable communication, ascertaining the highest perception among males between 18 and 25 years in Germany. Among the Spanish respondents, males were identified to exhibit the highest perception, whereas age proved to be not an influencing factor. Demonstrating different perception levels between the analyzed countries, our results indicate a better corporate sustainability level in Germany. Findings aim to help especially multinational companies to improve their information system, segment their customer base and define their marketing strategy.