The Share Price Impact of UK CCA Disclosures

This study investigates the impact of the experimental standard, SSAP16 (Current Cost Accounting), on share returns on the London stock market. Approximately 200 companies were examined between 1980–84. The experimental design specifies current cost as a supplementary signal to historical cost and employs two main statistical tools: ordinary least squares regression and the abnormal performance metric. In addition, a number of different CCA measurements are specified in order to assess the sensitivity of the results and to ease comparison with other studies. The results suggest that CCA information has a small but significant impact on stock returns in the days up to announcement. However, CCA does not seem to be the main driving force behind long period returns. Returns in the long run are associated more closely with historical cost information than with that generated by SSAPI6.     

Advertising archetypes’ impact on physician engagement and behavior in the context of healthcare products

The pharmaceutical industry spends billions annually on marketing to physicians (over $4.3 billion in 2014). The industry as a whole has a lot of experience in determining what to say to physicians, but it is less confident when it comes to how to say it—sometimes leading to advertising that does not engage, thereby costing sales. In an effort to define a set of rule‐based guidelines for effective pharma branding, the study adapts the primary Jungian archetypes to develop the first collection of archetypal tones of voice for healthcare products. The study here demonstrates, via a series of fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analyses that well executed ads following an archetype consistently connect with physician audiences, while nonarchetypal healthcare ads demonstrate an inconsistent performance. Such an analysis would traditionally take the form of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), but NHST provides substantially less insights than algorithm modeling and the use of fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis as this study describes.     

The Corn Laws and English wheat prices, 1815–1846

The British Corn Laws of the nineteenth century are the classic example of a trade barrier. This paper evaluates their importance to English society by analyzing the effects of the Corn Laws on wheat markets. Import supply elasticities are estimated for all of England's major grain supply markets, using data on prices, quantities, and freight costs from each country. A partial equilibrium trade arbitrage model is then constructed. In the absence of the Corn Laws, prices would have been 9 percent lower and consumption about 1.5 percent greater. The Corn Laws were, therefore, of great social and economic importance as England moved into the period of industrialization.     

GENERIC PROMOTION OF BEEF: MEASURING THE IMPACT OF THE US BEEF CHECKOFF

Generic promotions of commodities are growing in importance. In the US, commodity industry assessments or checkoffs (i.e. a per unit levy or tax) are used to underwrite domestic and international promotions by commodity groups. The US beef checkoff is one of the largest of these new national commodity programmes. Evaluation of the economic impact of the beef promotion is an essential part of the beef checkoff. A model for evaluating the US beef programmes is estimated and the methodology is applicable to other commodity models that include advertising and promotion expenditures. The beef analysis shows a positive and significant return to the beef industry, with an average of approximately $5 for each $1 invested for the quarters 1987:1 through 1991:2.     

Certified public accountants: Ethical perception skills and attitudes on ethics education

This study investigated the proficiency of CPAs in recognizing and evaluating ethical and unethical situations. In addition, CPAs provided attitudes on ethics education. Respondents were asked to evaluate the ethical acceptability of CPA behavior as presented in six vignettes involving a variety of ethical dilemmas from questions of conflict of interest to questions of personal honor. The results tend to signify that CPAs can, to a degree, distinguish ethical and unethical behaviors. It appears that ethical behaviors and very specific unethical behaviors were more easily identified by practitioners. This may reveal uncertainty and apprehension as to exactly what constitutes unethical behavior since, in many circumstances, this resolution is made on a case-specific basis rather that via a universal rule. In addition, it is interesting to note that CPAs tend to picture themselves as more ethically-oriented than their peers.With respect to ethics education, the CPAs indicated that instruction in ethical concepts and literacy was important and should definitely be embodied in the accounting curriculum as well as at all educational levels. However, the CPAs were remarkably uncertain and ambivalent as to the qualifications of university faculty to provide this instruction and guidance.Suzanne Pinac Ward, CPA, is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, LA 70504. She received her Ph.D. in Accounting. Dr. Ward is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Louisiana Society of Certified Public Accountants, and the American Accounting Association.Dan R. Ward is a Professor of Accounting at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, LA 70504. He received his DBA in Accounting. Dr. Ward is a member of the International, Taxation, and Accounting Behavior and Organizations Sections of the American Accounting Association, the Society of Petroleum Accountants, and the Academy of Accounting Historians.Alan B. Deck, CMA, is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, LA 70504. He received his Ph.D. in Accounting. Dr. Deck is a member of the Institute of Management Accountants and the American Accounting Association.     

A Note on Selecting a Response Measure for Financial Distress

Since 1966, researchers have examined financial distress prediction models to determine the usefulness of accounting information to lenders. These researchers primarily used legal bankruptcy as the response variable for economic financial distress, or included legal bankruptcy with other events in dichotomous prediction models. However, theoretical models of financial distress normally define financial distress as an economic event, the inability to pay debts when due (insolvency). This study uses a loan default/accommodation response variable as a proxy for the inability to pay debts when due. The purpose of this note is to empirically test whether or not using the inability of a firm to pay debts when due, loan default/accommodation, as a response measure produces different results than using legal bankruptcy as the response measure. The study's empirical results show that legal bankruptcy and loan default/accommodation financial distress prediction models produce different statistical results, thus suggesting that the responses measure different constructs. A loan default/accommodation model also fits the data better than a bankrupt model. Our results suggest that a loan default/accommodation response may be a more appropriate measure to determine which accounting information is most useful to lenders in evaluating a firm's credit risk.     

Examining CSR disclosure strategies within the Australian food and beverage industry

This study examines intra-industry variation in CSR disclosure practice. Specifically, it investigates whether companies from industry sub-sectors with different CSR profiles have varying patterns of CSR disclosure. The industry analysed is the Australian food and beverage industry. The paper finds that companies from industry sub-sectors with higher CSR profiles engage in greater ‘symbolic’ disclosures. Further, the relationship between CSR profile and disclosure strategy was found to be influenced also by the centrality of the CSR issue under examination to the company's business. While the small sample size limits generalisability, these findings have implications for both CSR research and practice.     

Information processing strategies and framing effects in developing country choice experiments: results from rice farmers in India

This study explores the effect of various information processing strategies specifically related to attribute nonattendance in stated choice experiments. Our approach includes two forms of stated choice task nonattendance, each derived from separately framed questions asked immediately following the completion of each choice task. We also evaluate a measure of inferred serial nonattendance based on the posterior distributions of random coefficient estimates. We find that choice task nonattendance question framing statistically impacts marginal utility coefficients and, to a lesser degree, willingness‐to‐pay estimates. While direct questions addressing attribute attendance or nonattendance affect these estimates, inferred indicators of serial nonattendance suggest that many attributes are not likely ignored as often as respondents may indicate. Further research is needed to assess inferred versus stated approaches to modeling respondent information processing strategies.