Analysis on the Background of Applicability of the Conservatism Convention

＂Conservatism＂ is a widely accepted accounting convention in the industrialized world, but it has long been slated and prohibited under the orthodox ideological influences. To date, the conservatism convention has not been fully adopted or implemented although the governments have made substantial efforts to reform its accounting system to bridge the gaps between the accounting practices in recent years. The study findings will facilitate a proper assessment of the future development of accounting standards and practices.     

The wisdom of the few or the wisdom of the many? An indirect test of the marginal trader hypothesis

The Marginal Trader Hypothesis (Forsythe et al. 1992, in American Economic Review 82(5): 1142–1161) posits that a small group of well-informed traders keep an asset’s market price equal to its fundamental value. Forsythe et al. base this claim on evidence from U.S. presidential prediction markets. We test the Marginal Trader Hypothesis by examining a decision task that precludes marginal traders. Specifically, students are asked to predict the class average for a given exam. We show that performance on our task is similar to that reported for the Iowa Electronic Markets, and that accuracy is unrelated to academic performance and does not correlate across tasks.     

In Search of the Impactful and the Interesting: Swings of the Pendulum?

In this article we reflect on our time as editors of JMS during the period 2003–09. First we describe the context as we saw it on assuming editorship of the Journal and the actions that we took to improve the quality of scholarship published in the journal in order to set JMS on the trajectory to become a world‐leading Journal. We articulate our view of what quality means in this context and observe that we eschewed the USA–Europe divide. Rather, to be publishable, all papers had to meet the highest standards relative to their epistemological assumptions. Finally, we address two important challenges facing the Journal, and indeed management research in general, and consider what they mean for the future of JMS, notably in relation to open access publishing and to provide greater practical relevance. We conclude that the latter represents a swing of the pendulum towards the kinds of papers published in the early years of JMS but that recent developments in JMS provide new conceptual frameworks and empirical methods that contribute to enhanced insights for practice.     

Can University Leaders Manage the Tensions Between the Practice of Innovation and the Traditions of the University?

The practice of innovating within a university causes tension because it is not well understood, is perceived as risky, and is seen as a threat to established power, which makes it difficult to know where to house it for maximum effect. The tension can be reduced by focusing on the similarities of innovating and teaching, inviting faculty and staff to serve as early adopters, and having senior administrators be the budgetary and political champions for innovation initiatives.     

Effect of the Government’s Use of Social Media on the Reliability of the Government: Focus on Twitter

Abstract

The social media have been well recognized as important spaces for providing the people with government service and PR policy and they have been utilized by most of the government entities. Therefore, we try to identify whether the social media can be used as tools to enhance the reliability of the government. This study indicates Twitter is different from other conventional channels not only in the form but also in substance. Therefore, the service prioritizing more on transparency, participation, and communication or relationship appears more desirable and is utilized to the maximum.     

General Situation of the Experiments of Enterprise Groups

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On the phenomenology of technology: the “Janus-faces” of mobile phones

This paper argues that technologies perform in Janus faced ways; that is, in ways that are ironic, perverse and paradoxical, and it is argued that these qualities are important to apprehend if we are to more fully understand the role of technology in organizations and in our daily lives.The argument opens with an account of Janus as a metaphorical evocation of irony and paradox, and general examples of Janus faced technologies are given. Prominent philosophies of technology and theoretical approaches to technology are discussed in terms of their capacity to account for generalized examples of irony and paradox. Of these, it is argued that the most satisfactory account is provided by (a) Heidegger’s suggestion that our world is enframed by technology, taken together with (b) a logic of sociotechnical systems based in relational and hybrid ontologies. This sketch of the philosophical landscape occupied by Janus is followed by a interpretation of the specific case of mobile phones, which provides concrete and hopefully vivid examples of the Janus faced performance of technology.The conclusion reached is that the Janus faced metaphor and its philosophical context provides the researcher with the analytic advantages of foregrounding uncertainty, avoiding an essentialist or determinist role for technology, and allowing for the possibility of the presence of tension and contradiction in accounts of sociotechnical outcomes.     

The Study of the Application of the Gray Relevancy Analysis to the Value Chain Based Cost Control

Cost problem is always a bottleneck which ties to the development and the competition ability in the enterprise of our country, especially in state-owned enterprise. Practice proves that traditional cost control can not satisfy the needs of enterprises. Enterprises are seeking better cost control approach with great efforts in order to calculate and control cost more accurately, and require cost control system has more strong functions. This paper analyzes value chain based cost control approach, and applies the gray relevancy analysis to the approach rightly.     

Is the division of labour limited by the extent of the market? Evidence from French cities

This paper provides supportive evidence to the notion that the division of labour is limited by the extent of the (local) market. We first propose a theoretical model. Its main prediction is that scarce specialists occupations are over-represented in large cities. Using census data for French cities, we find strong empirical support for this prediction.     

About the determinants of the degree of novelty in small businesses’ product innovations

This paper explores the nature and determinants of product innovation in small businesses from a survey of more than 1,500 small firms in Spain. Two levels of factors affecting innovation are considered: (1) The personal characteristics of the entrepreneurs -their age, motivations, educational background and degree of interpersonal trust. (2) The characteristics of the organizations’ management—cooperation, risk taking, proactivity and specific innovation and growth policies. The paper shows that the factors explaining the firms’ decisions to introduce small incremental innovations -and the strength of these influences- are different, to a large extent, from those favoring substantial product innovations.     

On statistical approaches to the study of the “Law of Initial Values”

This paper is concerned with the well-known Law of Initial Values (Wilder, 1931, 1967). First, possible causes of this phenomenon of initial value dependence are discussed. The limitations of a structural relationships based method for testing its effect in empirical data sets in social and behavioral science research are next discussed. Within the popular structural equation modeling methodology, a multiple-indicator model is then focused on, which allows studying the Law of Initial Values. The described approach is illustrated using data from a cognitive intervention study (Baltes, Dittmann-Kohli & Kliegl, 1986).     

Effect Study of Management Buyouts of Chinese Listed Companies ——On the Basis of the Company Financial Indexes

This paper selects 11 Chinese listed companies as the sample and compares the effect of premanagement buyouts and post-management buyouts （hereafter MBO）. The authors evaluate the effects of MBO according to the change of earnings capacity, management ability, debt paying ability, development ability and capital structure. The result shows that the obvious change does not take place in earnings capacity of the company and management ability, but the development ability of the company improves notably, and most of companies have taken advantage of financial leverage withir two years of post-MBO.     

Implications of the EU Information and Consultation Directive and the Regulations in the UK – prospects for the future of employee representation

The EU Directive on informing and consulting employees (I&C Directive) is now established on the employment relations agenda with the provisions coming into force in the UK in April 2005. The I&C Directive potentially has far reaching consequences for the way UK employers inform and consult employees over a wide range of organizational issues, with the potential to transform the UK industrial relations environment. The initiatives contained in the I&C Directive and the subsequent introduction of the Information and Consultation of Employees (ICE) Regulations will take place in an employment relations environment in a period of significant change. Pressures of globalization have intensified competition in product and labour markets, emphasizing the need for greater efficiency and productivity. This has led to a greater focus on the link between employee participation practices and business strategy and organizational performance in search of an elusive (or illusory) fit? This paper is a commentary on the origins and rationale of this new legislation in the UK context, drawing on existing knowledge and academic debates in the area. In addition, the paper discusses the potential implications of the I&C Directive and the likely impact of the ICE Regulations on UK representative voice arrangements.     

Self-directed work teams: the wave of the future?

Although teams are currently a popular means of solving work force needs in health care, there has been little use of self-directed work teams--autonomous units without a front-line manager and empowered to control their own work. This article analyzes key differences between self-directed work teams and traditional teams, looks at three cases in which self-directed work teams were implemented, and discusses some of the barriers to the formation and use of self-directed work teams.     

The Reform of the System of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives

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A Dynamic Panel Data Approach to the Forecasting of the GDP of German Länder

Abstract

In this paper, we make multi-step forecasts of the annual growth rates of the real GDP for each of the 16 German Länder simultaneously. We apply dynamic panel models accounting for spatial dependence between regional GDP. We find that both pooling and accounting for spatial effects help to improve the forecast performance substantially. We demonstrate that the effect of accounting for spatial dependence is more pronounced for longer forecasting horizons (the forecast accuracy gain is about 9% for a 1-year horizon and exceeds 40% for a 5-year horizon). We recommend incorporating a spatial dependence structure into regional forecasting models, especially when long-term forecasts are made.     

Nurturance of the Interpreter＇s Awareness of Cross-cultural Communication

The special status of an interpreter in the cross-cultural communication impels him or her nurture and use cross-cultural awareness in communication. The cross-cultural awareness promotes the understanding of both sides,avoid communication barrier in cross-cultural communication. Therefore,cross-cuhurul awareness is undoubtedly significant. This text introduces the concept of cross-cultural awareness, the relationship between cross-cultural awareness and interpreting, the significance of cross-cultural awareness to an interpreter,and carries on preliminary research in how an interpreter nurtures cross-cultural awareness.