Making sense of complex data using interactive data visualization

An important role for accountants today is to provide decision support to senior management by assisting them in the analysis of large, complex data sets. Interactive data visualization (IDV) facilitates this process by allowing users to navigate, select, and display data via an easy-to-use interface often used as a component of data analytics. Given the increasing popularity of IDV as a tool for making sense of complex data, it is important that accountants become familiar with and learn how to use this technology. This case provides a hands-on opportunity to organize complex accounting data to create IDVs for decision makers to use. Further, the case enables students to understand the potential impact of IDVs on preparers and users of accounting information. Students will assume the role of a division controller in a hypothetical company and create an IDV to assist the chief executive officer (CEO) in decision making.     

Remanufacturing for the Circular Economy: An Examination of Consumer Switching Behavior

For the circular economy to be tenable, consumers need to not only return products after use, but also purchase products that are remanufactured. However, research finds that consumers have a poor opinion of remanufactured products and are typically not prepared to adopt them. Thus, development of the circular economy is dependent upon deeper understanding of consumers’ attitudes and behaviors. Research typically considers either micro‐level or macro‐level factors when assessing consumer perceptions of remanufactured products. The current research incorporates macro‐level factors of price, government incentives and environmental benefits with the moderating influence of micro‐level consumer attitudes to examine consumers’ intention to switch from purchasing new products to remanufactured products. The findings suggest that a consumer's attitude toward remanufactured products is an important moderating factor predicting consumer switching behavior to remanufactured products. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Market Risk Disclosures and Investment Efficiency: International Evidence from the Gulf Cooperation Council Financial Firms

This study examines the association between market risk disclosures (MRDs) and the investment efficiency of financial firms from six emerging markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Based on a sample of 553 firm‐year observations over the 2007–2011 period, we find that MRDs are significantly and negatively associated with both under‐investment and over‐investment and that this association is more pronounced for larger firms. We also find that the association between MRDs and under‐investment is moderated during periods of economic distress such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and that the association between MRDs and over‐investment is magnified during periods of reduced financial distress. Our results are consistent with the idea that MRDs reduce information asymmetry, which ultimately improves investment efficiency. We contribute to the literature in an emerging market context by providing empirical evidence on the association between MRDs and investment efficiency across six emerging GCC capital markets. This study also fills a gap in the literature by providing evidence on the factors affecting the investment efficiency of financial firms.     

Carol Corrado,Jonathan Haskel,Javier Miranda,and Daniel Sichel (eds.): Measuring and accounting for innovation in the twenty-first century (NBER studies in income and wealth,volume 78)

Business Economics -     

Modern Slavery and the Discursive Construction of a Propertied Freedom: Evidence from Australian Business

Journal of Business Ethics - This paper examines the ethics of the Australian business community’s responses to the phenomenon of modern slavery. Engaging a critical discourse approach, we...     

The emergence of next generation internet users

The Internet is central to the new media, but the Internet is itself a dynamic technology that is constantly evolving as users adopt and reject new features, devices and applications and use them in ways that are often unanticipated. This article is anchored in longitudinal survey data on how Britons use the Internet, which illuminates the emergence of new patterns of accessing the Internet over multiple devices—some of which are portable—in everyday life and work. We call those who adopt this new approach ‘next generation users’. In contrast, first generation users remain anchored to one or more personal computers in the household or workplace for accessing the Internet. The analysis shows how this emerging pattern of access is reshaping the use and impact of the Internet, such as in supporting the production of user generated content. The analysis also shows how next generation access is socially distributed; creating a new digital divide that reinforces socioeconomic inequalities. Future research needs to move beyond the study of access to the Internet to track the diffusion of next generation access and its implications across a wider array of nations.     

Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure of Sales in Small Private Companies in Belgium

Small businesses are the backbone of the economy in many countries. In Europe, for example, small companies represent more than 90 per cent of all companies (e.g., Lukacs, 2005 ). Although these companies represent such an important portion of the economy, few studies have examined their voluntary disclosure decisions. Because small companies have certain unique characteristics compared with their larger counterparts, the general applicability of past voluntary disclosure studies to small companies is questionable. Drawing on agency and proprietary cost theory, this study investigates whether ownership, competition, and accountant factors influence the decision to disclose financially sensitive information on a voluntary basis. Our results (using an e‐mail questionnaire to small private companies in Belgium, n = 1,068) indicate that nearly 40 per cent of the responding companies are not aware of their disclosure behavior. For companies that are aware of their disclosure behavior, the logistic regression analysis demonstrates that factors relating to the separation of ownership and control, namely the type of ownership and number of shareholders, are among the most important determinants in the voluntary disclosure decision of small private companies. Companies with at least one legal entity as an owner of a company are less likely to disclose, while companies with more shareholders are more likely to disclose. We also provide evidence that perceived competition and the default setting of the accounting software used have a significant influence on the voluntary disclosure behavior.     

Marketing Organic Pasta from Big Sandy to Rome: It's a Long Kamut ®

Bob Quinn spent 20 years propagating an ancient Egyptian wheat variety that is generally known as Khorasan wheat. Bob trademarked his wheat variety using the brand name "Kamut^®." Kamut^® brand wheat contains some nutritional, health, and taste advantages over modern wheat varieties, but lacks some of modern wheat's agronomic advantages. Kamut^® brand wheat is organically produced, and is used to make cereals, breads, cookies, snacks, pancakes, bread mixes, bulgur, pasta, and baked goods. Whole wheat products produced from Kamut^® brand wheat are less bitter than those produced from modern wheat varieties. Europe represents approximately two-thirds of the market for this product.     

Measuring Serious Leisure in Chess: Model Confirmation and Method Bias

The serious leisure inventory and measure (SLIM) was tested with 348 chess players to confirm the factors, assess the effects of method bias, and propose a set of the best-performing items for the 18 factor SLIM. The 54-item SLIM demonstrated acceptable fit and reliability values. The effect of method bias was evidenced in the sample and explained one-third of the variance. Inspection of factor loadings, when controlling for method bias, yielded one best-performing item per factor. Findings indicate method bias continues to be problematic for self-report measures such as the SLIM.     

Involvement in and perception of the free-time context for adolescents in youth protection institutions

What adolescents do, with whom, and at which arenas, represent the contextual dimensions of adolescents' daily free-time. Since free-time may be particularly significant for many developmental processes in adolescence, it is important to understand the impact free-time may have on vulnerable youth. This study used the Experience Sampling Method to examine the free time of adolescents who are taken care of by the Child Welfare Organization (Oslo, Norway). When a sample of experiences (n = 479) from 20 adolescents living in youth protection institutions was compared to a sample of experiences (n = 741) from a non-institutionalized comparison group, results showed differences in perception of and involvement in daily after-school contexts. The adolescents from the youth protection institutions reported significantly fewer self-involving activities and spent their free time in different arenas compared to their peers. Further analyses disclosed differences in the perceptual experiences associated with activity, social group and arena.