The timing of final charitable bequest decisions

• Understanding the timing of final charitable bequest decisions permits nonprofits to co‐ordinate their marketing efforts to correspond with donor decision‐making. Using probate data from Australia and longitudinal survey data from the USA, this paper seeks to identify the timing of decisions that resulted in realized charitable bequests. We find evidence that charitable transfers result mostly from decisions that occur during the last 5 years of life and at the oldest ages. Charitable plans made earlier in life are often discarded.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Persistence of Regional Wage Differences in China

Regional wage differences in China appear to be persistent and even to have grown over the past two decades. We study potential explanations for this phenomenon. After adjusting for the difference in the cost of living across provinces, we find that some of the cross‐province differences in real wages could be related to the quality of labour, industry composition and geographic location of provinces. These factors, taken together, explain approximately half of the cross‐province real wage variation. Interestingly, we find that interprovincial government transfers have not offset regional wage differences during the time period we consider. We also demonstrate that interprovincial migration, while driven in part by levels and changes in wage differences across provinces, did not help offset these differences. These results are consistent with findings in the literature that cross‐province labour mobility in China is still limited.     

A Tale of Two Anomalies: Higher Returns of Low‐Risk Stocks and Return Seasonality

Prior studies have shown that low beta and low volatility stocks earn higher average returns than high beta and high volatility stocks, contradicting the prediction of the capital asset pricing model and the fundamental relationship between risk and return. In this paper, we demonstrate that this phenomenon is driven by the seasonality of stock returns. We show that the risk‐return tradeoff does hold in the nonsummer months, and that switching to a portfolio of low‐risk stocks in summer outperforms—both in terms of absolute and in risk‐adjusted returns—buy and hold strategies as well as the Sell in May strategy of switching to treasury bills in summer.     

Tensions Arising from Imposing NPM in Australian Public Universities: A Management Perspective

This study seeks to identify the characteristics causing tensions in the move towards a corporate culture in Australian public universities. The findings reveal ongoing structural, competency and behavioral issues contributing to the tensions. Two theoretical propositions have emerged regarding the status of the change process. First, the change to a corporate culture is slow but continuing. Second, universities have accepted that public sector, collegial and corporate cultures have to co‐exist, thus adopting an adapted version of new public management (NPM). These findings provide avenues for further research to confirm both the characteristics and theoretical propositions.     

Christopher McKenna. The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century

In this engrossing study of management consulting, ChristopherMcKenna seeks to understand the prominence of consulting withinAmerican business. Focusing on a small set of elite consultingfirms, but frequently discussing others, McKenna argues thatthe legitimacy and knowledge sold by consultants to their clientswere rooted in the growing complexity and internationalizationof the American economy (the forces conventionally invoked toexplain consulting's rise), as well as changes in federal regulationsin the 1930s, 1950s, and 1980s.     

Putting Meta-Analysis to Work: Accountants' Organizational-Professional Conflict

Commentators on empirical research in business ethics have recommended that use should be made of meta-analysis – the quantitative analysis of a group of research studies. This paper elaborates upon those recommendations by conducting, as a "case study" for further reflection, a meta-analysis of studies of accountants' organizational-professional conflict (OPC) previously published in accounting and psychology journals. Of five variables capable of analysis, only the population correlation coefficient between OPC and organizational tenure is identified. It was not possible to find the population correlation coefficient of the other four variables, for which several possible reasons are suggested. The paper then shows how meta-analysis can make a valuable contribution, even when the substantive findings are limited, by providing guidance for future research and a safeguard against the drawing of unjustified conclusions, to which the more usual narrative reviews of literature are prone.     

Corporate philanthropy in the United Kingdom

The increasing demands placed on private welfare services and calls for business to fulfil its social responsibilities have heightened interest in corporate charitable donations in the United Kingdom. Adjustments to the corporation tax system have been made to encourage companies to give more. The article outlines the legal and fiscal background to company giving, examines its magnitude and reports on a survey of company practice.Christopher J. Cowton is a Research Fellow of Templeton College, The Oxford Centre for Management Studies. His main research interests are in accounting, which he teaches on the College's executive programs and to Oxford University undergraduates and postgraduates. He is the author of a recent research monograph on the disclosure of corporate charitable donations.