An investigation into student satisfaction,approaches to learning and the learning context in Auditing

Arguably, the audit course is one of the most challenging as it links prior accounting knowledge with new audit knowledge that students are generally not exposed to. A mini‐audit group project was implemented at a New Zealand university, and a learning approach and learning experience survey instrument was administered. Responses from 98 students suggest that they perceived the learning experience positively and were encouraged to adopt a deep approach to learning. The findings have implications for accounting educators in the design and development of learning and assessment strategies in an audit course.     

Industry equilibrium with random exit or default

An industry consisting of a large number of small price taking firms subject to idiosyncratic productivity shocks is considered. At the moment of entry, a firm takes on debt. We show that in a competitive equilibrium, some firms exit and pay out their debt while others choose to default. The outcome depends on the realization of firm‐specific shocks. The paper demonstrates that if the firms self‐select between exit with debt repayment and default, then the default region is disconnected from the exit region. The methodological contribution of the paper is the analytical characterization of the long‐run equilibrium for two scenarios of the initial distribution of productivity shocks. We consider two public policy mechanisms—contract enforcement and creditor protection. Our policy recommendation is that regulators need to reduce the contract enforcement if they want to decrease the long‐run default rate.     

Applying time-constraint access control of personal health record in cloud computing

ABSTRACT

Due to the advances in medical technology, popularity of education, and increase of public self-consciousness. The World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted the use of e-health tools. The digitalization of patients’ personal health records enables doctors to review parients’ complete medical records and enhance medical efficiency. A personal health record system is established in the cloud to achieve these above goals.Therefore, the aim of this study is to construct an authority management mechanism by incorporating bilinear pairing and time-constraint. The proposed scheme will ensure that an authorized medical personnel can obtain an decryption key only in the legal time interval.     

An Expectancy Theory Model for Hotel Employee Motivation: Examining the Moderating Role of Communication Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the role of communication satisfaction as a moderator strengthening the effect of three components of the expectancy theory (expectancy, instrumentality, valence) on work motivation in a hotel setting. High and low communication satisfaction groups respond differently to expectancy, instrumentality, valence, and work motivation. Employees who are highly satisfied with communication respond more positively toward motivation components, and they are more likely to perform well in their job when they are motivated. However, a series of confirmatory factor analyses of metric invariance indicated that there is no significant difference in the moderating effect between high and low communication satisfaction groups. Communication should be managed collectively to motivate employees. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided to better explain the process of decision-making when hotel employees are motivated.     

The moderating effect of collectivistic orientation in psychological empowerment and job satisfaction relationship

This study examines the moderating effect of collectivistic value on the relationship between psychological empowerment and job satisfaction. Specifically, we propose that the multi-dimensional psychological effects of empowerment (i.e., meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact) on job satisfaction differ between high and low collectivistic employees. Data collected from hotel employees in Canada (n = 193) and China (n = 371) revealed that collectivistic orientation elevated (attenuated) the effect of self-determination (impact) on job satisfaction. However, no significant results were found with respect to meaning and competence. Research and practical implications for the findings as well as directions for future research are suggested.     

Entrepreneurial financing in new business ventures: a help-seeking behavior perspective

How and from whom prospective entrepreneurs seek their start-up capital for new venture formation represent fundamental questions in entrepreneurial financing. Drawing on research of help-seeking behavior, we propose that apart from economic rationale entrepreneurs’ decisions to seek financing may be influenced by socio-psychological factors. Using a scenario experiment (venture risk x relational proximity) to investigate how prospective entrepreneurs considered funding from family and outsiders, it was found that they tended to seek family financing when the family was close and the risk was high, and inclined to seek outsider funding when the venture risk was high and the family was not close. The findings might seem paradoxical but they actually underscore the influence of socio-psychological factors in entrepreneurial financing decisions and offer novel contributions to the entrepreneurship, informal investment, and education literatures.     

Income Convergence in African Countries: Evidence from a Stationary Test With Multiple Structural Breaks

This paper examines the catching‐up (stochastic convergence in real per capita income) hypothesis for 52 African countries with respect to the USA. over the 1969‐2011 period, using a highly flexible stationarity test. The empirical results show (i) that all African countries experienced at least one break, switching between catching‐up and divergence paths during the sample period; (ii) that structural breaks tend to coincide with political instability, trade liberalisation policies and terms of trade shocks; (iii) that among the 52 African countries studied, only five lie on the catching‐up path, while the remaining 47 diverge from the USA. Our results show that the economic performance of African countries fall far behind those of the USA and that the economic growth tragedy of Africa continues.     

Housing Markets in China and Policy Implications： Comovement or Ripple Effect

The overheated housing market has recently become a top priority of the Chinese authorities and whether the ripple effect exists is key to understanding this housing issue. The present paper uses a cointegration estimation technique for six first-tier Chinese cities during the 2003-2013 period to show that the comovements among housing prices in China are fully reflected in a long-run equilibrium. Using the Toda- Yamamoto causality test, the ripple effect is found to be characterized by a lead -lag relationship. More importantly, it is found that Beo＇ing is the main source of housing price appreciation in China, and should be targeted as the regulatory object to efficiently resolve the troubles in this increasingly high housing-price era.     

Managerial Overconfidence and Share Repurchases

Following prior studies, we use keywords in press portrayals to gauge managerial overconfidence. We hypothesize that managerial overconfidence is related to a manager's perception that the firm is undervalued. Results from 2744 share repurchase programs launched by 783 listed firms in Taiwan confirm this hypothesis. We find that managerial overconfidence is positively correlated with the intensity of share repurchasing, which is measured by scale, execution, frequency, and the difference between the announced price and post‐execution price. Moreover, the programs launched by overconfident managers were not undervalued and therefore were associated with reduced post‐announcement returns.