New Auditors’ Decisions for Released Firms from the Mandatory Auditor Designation Rule: Evidence From South Korea

This study examines the effect of the mandatory designation rule on audit fees charged and audit hours rendered by auditors for firms released from the mandatory auditor designation rule in the Korean audit market. Under the mandatory auditor designation rule, which took effect in 1991, problematic firms are assigned new auditors by the Financial Supervisory Service. Previous studies suggest that this regulation positively affects the quality of audits by promoting auditor independence. Thus, this study hypothesises that firms that have been subjected to mandatory auditor designation improve the quality of their financial reporting, and that auditors hired after the mandatory designation period account for reduced audit risks when determining audit fees and audit hours. This study shows that audit fees and audit hours of firms released from the mandatory auditor designation rule are lower than those of other initial audit engagements. Taken together, this study's findings reinforce the notion that auditors’ perceptions of changes in audit risk yield corresponding changes in the audit fees they charge and audit hours they render.     

The effect of communication practice on deviance among Korean salespeople: The mediating role of intrinsic motivation

Previous research on salesperson behavior largely focused on positive and productive behavior and less on the negative side of the salesperson behavior. This research examines the effect of leader–member communication exchange on salesperson workplace deviance and the mediating role of trust and intrinsic motivation in this relationship. Data were collected from 469 salespeople in the Korean banking industry. Results of the structural equation model show that indirect and bi-directional communication between manager and salesperson decrease salesperson workplace deviance by increasing trust and motivation. However, communication frequency and mood have no significant effects on salesperson trust. Finally, motivation (achievement, status, and communion striving) plays a mediating role in the negative relationships between salesperson trust and his/her deviant behavior toward specific targets (organization, coworker, and customer).     

Calling It Out: The Impact of National Identity on Consumer Response to Ads With a Patriotic Theme

This study examined how ethnic minorities negotiate between ethnic and national identities and respond to ads that intend to appeal to consumers through patriotism. Specifically, this study proposed that activating ethnic minorities' national identity through a prime would affect their evaluation of ads with a patriotic theme. Further, this effect among ethnic minorities would be different from that among the majority. Findings from this study suggest that (1) Caucasian Americans (the majority group) responded more favorably to ads with a patriotic theme than did Asian Americans (ethnic minorities); (2) both Caucasian and Asian Americans became more positive in their ad evaluations when their American national identity was made momentarily salient through a national identity prime; and (3) the effect of national identity activation on evaluation of ads was greater among Asian Americans than among Caucasian Americans.     

Compromise effect and consideration set size in consumer decision-making

The compromise effect dictates that a decision-maker chooses a middle option over an extreme one given a set of choice alternatives since choosing an intermediate option is easier to justify, less likely to be criticized, and is consistent with loss aversion. Our experiment is designed to identify whether the connection between the extremeness of the options and the size of the consideration sets is economically and statistically significant and thus would have important behavioural implications. Specifically, we compare decision-making under small and large consideration sets where the extremeness of the comprising choice options is high, as opposed to low. The results demonstrate that an increase in consideration set size leads to weaker compromise effect (i.e. boundary condition) but when composed of high extremeness, strengthens the compromise effect.     

Price Discrimination in Public Healthcare

Could a public healthcare system use price discrimination—paying medical service providers different fees, depending on the service provider's quality—lead to improvements in social welfare? We show that differentiating medical fees by quality increases social welfare relative to uniform pricing (i.e. quality‐invariant fee schedules) whenever hospitals and doctors have private information about their own ability. We also show that by moving from uniform to differentiated medical fees, the public healthcare system can effectively incentivise good doctors and hospitals (i.e. low‐cost‐types) to provide even higher levels of quality than they would under complete information. In the socially optimal quality‐differentiated medical fee system, low‐cost‐type medical‐service providers enjoy a rent due to their informational advantage. Informational rent is socially beneficial because it gives service providers a strong incentive to invest in the extra training required to deliver high‐quality services at low cost, providing yet another efficiency gain from quality‐differentiated medical fees.     

Strategic Choice and Performance in Late Movers: Influence of the Top Management Team's External Ties

This work examines how the strategic choice and performance of late movers are influenced by the top management team's external ties, inside and outside the firm's industry. Using a multiyear sample of firms from the computer industry, we found that intra-industry trade-association ties of top managers led to the adoption of a resource-imitation strategy by late movers while extra-industry importation and professional-association ties led to the adoption of a resource-substitution strategy. We also found that trade association ties had a negative effect on the performance of late movers using resource-substitution, while top managers' service on other firms' boards had a positive influence on the performance of those firms. Our findings not only confirm the importance of the role of fit in strategy and performance, but they also highlight the importance of the management and control of boundary-spanning activities.     

水性轮转凹印油墨在PET和BOPP基材上印刷的对比研究

采用凹印机（最大速度500m／min）在PET（聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯）和BOPP（双向拉伸聚丙烯）承印物上进行印刷试验,以研究高速凹版印刷下油墨的转移情况和印刷适性。将水性油墨用酒精稀释后,在特定的印刷速度、印刷压力和网穴尺寸等多种印刷设备条件下对柔性承印物进行印刷。采用光学显微镜、UV可见光谱仪和原子力显微镜（AFM）测量印刷图像和油墨转移率。通过对界面张力、黏度以及油墨与承印物之间润湿角的测量与评价,定量分析它们对印刷特性的影响。实验结果表明,影响印刷特性的最重要的因素是油墨黏度、表面张力和界面张力。稀释后的油墨在PET和BOPP薄膜上的铺展系数都小于零,也就是说油墨难以在二者上顺利铺展,因此,扩散可能是由于剪切力导致油墨流动。显微镜或光谱仪测量表明,在各种试验印刷设备条件下,印刷速度不会对PET薄膜上印刷图像的均匀性和色度产生很大影响,而BOPP薄膜上的图像质量则在很大程度上依赖于转速。两者存在差异的主要原因在于BOPP薄膜多孔表面的毛细管堵塞导致油墨的铺展能力降低。此外,网穴尺寸（网点百分比）增大导致色度增大,其原因在于油墨和承印物间的接触面积变大。尤其对于BOPP薄膜来说,其印刷图像的色度会随着网点百分比的增大而线性增大。应该指出,在相同的稀释条件和设备条件下,较之PET薄膜来说,BOPP薄膜上的印刷图像的色度与墨层厚度远远高于PET薄膜。BOPP与PET薄膜在油墨转移率上的较大差异也许可以在一定程度上解释两者在界面张力上的差异,以及BOPP承印物上的吸收现象。     

Energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and economic growth: evidence from Indonesia

Energy policy-makers in Indonesia are interested in the causal relationship between energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, and economic growth. Therefore, this paper attempts to analyze the short- and long-run causality issues between energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, and economic growth in Indonesia using time-series techniques. To this end, annual data covering the period 1965–2006 are employed and tests for unit roots, co-integration, and Granger-causality based on an error-correction model are applied. The results show that there is a bi-directional causality between energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. This means that an increase in energy consumption directly affects CO₂ emissions and that CO₂ emissions also stimulate further energy consumption. In addition, the results support the occurrence of uni-directional causality running from economic growth to energy consumption and to CO₂ emissions without any feedback effects. Thus, energy conservation and/or CO₂ emissions reduction policies can be initiated without the consequent destructive economic side effects.     

Impact of Environmental Performance on Firm Value for Sustainable Investment: Evidence from Large US Firms

This research examines the impact of environmental performance on firm value, applying the event study methodology to Newsweek’s ‘Green Rankings’ announcement of 2012 for large US firms. Specifically, it analyzes the impact of the absolute green score and green rank of firms on their performance in the stock market. We found that investors perceive the announcement as positive news, leading to significant positive standardized cumulative abnormal returns (SCARs). After controlling for industry‐ and firm‐specific effects, we observed that firms with repeated green rankings for enhancing environmental performance showed significantly higher SCARs than those with either reduced or unchanged environmental performance. In addition, the environmental impact score measuring environmental damage from a firm's operational activities was found to be the most influential factor in improving the firm's value. Our findings are beneficial to managers in allocating resources to different types of environmental initiative, and provide valuable insight for sustainable environmental investment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Comparison of economic and clinical outcomes between patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery with powered versus manual endoscopic surgical staplers

Aims: To compare economic and clinical outcomes between patients undergoing laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRY) or laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) with use of powered vs manual endoscopic surgical staplers.

Materials and methods: Patients (aged ≥21 years) who underwent LRY or LSG during a hospital admission (January 1, 2012–September 30, 2015) were identified from the Premier Perspective Hospital Database. Use of powered vs manual staplers was identified from hospital administrative billing records. Multivariable analyses were used to compare the following outcomes between the powered and manual stapler groups, adjusting for patient and hospital characteristics and hospital-level clustering: hospital length of stay (LOS), total hospital costs, medical/surgical supply costs, room and board costs, operating room costs, operating room time, discharge status, bleeding/transfusion during the hospital admission, and 30, 60, and 90-day all-cause readmissions.

Results: The powered and manual stapler groups comprised 9,851 patients (mean age?=?44.6 years; 79.3% female) and 21,558 patients (mean age?=?45.0 years; 78.0% female), respectively. In the multivariable analyses, adjusted mean hospital LOS was 2.1 days for both the powered and manual stapler groups (p?=?.981). Adjusted mean total hospital costs ($12,415 vs $13,547, p?=?.003), adjusted mean supply costs ($4,629 vs $5,217, p?=?.011), and adjusted mean operating room costs ($4,126 vs $4,413, p?=?.009) were significantly lower in the powered vs manual stapler group. The adjusted rate of bleeding and/or transfusion during the hospital admission (2.46% vs 3.22%, p?=?.025) was significantly lower in the powered vs manual stapler group. The adjusted rates of 30, 60, and 90-day all-cause readmissions were similar between the groups (all p?>?.05). Sub-analysis by manufacturer showed similar results.

Limitations: This observational study cannot establish causal linkages.

Conclusions: In this analysis of patients who underwent LRY or LSG, the use of powered staplers was associated with better economic outcomes, and a lower rate of bleeding/transfusion vs manual staplers in the real-world setting.