Spacek's Contributions to Accounting Thought Revisited

While he was managing partner and chair of Arthur Andersen in the l950s and 1960s, Leonard Spacek was an outspoken critic of public accounting, complaining about its failure to establish a coherent set of objectives for financial statements, its illogical principles and methods, and its principle-setting process. He was the conscience of the public accounting community during this time period, a critic from within. As far as Spacek was concerned, 'fairness' was the central objective of financial reporting, though he never specifically defined the term. In light of the recent high-profile corporate and accounting scandals, including Enron and World.com, both of which were audited by Arthur Andersen, it is useful to analyse Spacek's ideas on the public role of accounting from his speeches and writings with emphasis on the theme of fairness. Given the firm's long-term commitment to quality audits, it was ironic that Andersen fell victim to these scandals.     

毛泽东思想概论课教学应把握的几个问题

讲授“毛泽东思想概论”应把握毛泽东思想的理论基础、立论依据、主题、精髓以及“中国化”特色等方面 ,以帮助学生正确理解毛泽东思想的基本原理和精神实质。     

Voluntary Disclosure of Information in a Setting in which Endowment of Information has Productive Value

Abstract:  This paper introduces a model capturing managers' disclosure policies in settings in which disclosure is rewarded by the financial market because disclosure implies that managers are endowed with information and endowment of information may potentially improve the firm's productive efficiency. It provides sufficient condition for a threshold disclosure equilibrium to obtain and compares disclosure policies in a setting in which endowment of information improves the firm's productive efficiency with disclosure policies in a setting in which endowment of information has no impact on the firm's productive efficiency. Managers' disclosure policies are shown to depend crucially on whether the endowment of information is exogenous or endogenous. When the endowment of information is exogenous, an increase in the usefulness of information in improving the firm's productive efficiency leads to a decrease in the disclosure threshold and hence an increase in the amount of information disclosed. In contrast, when the endowment of information is endogenous, an increase in the usefulness of information in improving the firm's productive efficiency has no effect on the disclosure threshold but leads to a decrease in the probability with which information is acquired and hence a decrease in the amount of information disclosed. As, in the threshold disclosure equilibrium, the net present value of information acquisition arising from any increase in production efficiency is negative, an increase in the usefulness of information in improving the firm's productive efficiency thus reduces the inefficiency caused by information acquisition.     

Consumer purchase behaviour of irradiated beef products: a simulated supermarket setting

In December 1997, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of irradiation to kill harmful bacteria in beef. As a result of limited information about consumers’ potential response to implementation of this technology, a supermarket simulation setting (SSS) test was conducted to assess consumer purchase behaviour. The objectives were to determine consumers’ willingness to purchase irradiated beef products when provided with information at the grocery store level and consumer's perceptions towards irradiated beef. Primary household grocery shoppers (n = 207) in Griffin, Georgia, USA who consumed beef at least twice per week participated in the study. Ground beef, ground chuck, top round steak and rib eye steak were displayed in refrigerated cases in either traditionally labelled packages (non‐irradiated) or in packages labelled as irradiated. Irradiated and non‐irradiated beef had the same unit price. Participants were instructed to purchase two packages of each cut on their first shopping trip; they then shopped a second time after an informative poster about irradiation had been placed in the display cases. The results indicated that irradiation information displayed on the poster at the point of purchase was effective in causing significant change in beef purchase behaviour. The information caused some consumers who had bought traditional packages initially to buy irradiated packages subsequently while others who bought irradiated packages initially subsequently bought traditional packages. Hence, the net effect of the information was minimal. A mean test across form/cut showed that consumers did not differentiate between the ground form and the muscle form in selecting irradiated packages.     

汽车运用专业专科教学模式的探讨

通过分析市场对汽车人才的需求，对专科汽车运用专业的理论课程设置和实践课程设置进行了探讨，提出应重点提高学生的实践技能，并打破原有课程设置模式。     

对高职高专服装设计专业教育改革的探讨

目前服装设计专业毕业生与现代服装企业所需要的实际人才存在着能力差距,这主要由于高职高专服装教育存在一些弊端。这些弊端主要体现在培养模式陈旧、课程设置不合理、师资力量薄弱、缺乏先进的专业硬件设备、与服装企业缺少真正意义上的合作、在专业教学中轻视素质教育等方面。针对这些问题对服装设计专业培养方式提出了一些对策,从而使毕业生既能熟练掌握各项专业技能,又具有独特创新意识,在步入社会后,适应市场,学有所用。     

内部审计风险的成因及防范

内部审计风险具有客观性、特殊性、隐蔽性、持久性和可控性特征,其形成原因包括主观原因与客观原因。要防范内部审计风险,需要从提高内审人员综合素质、更新内部审计技术和方法、提高内部审计机构独立性、改善微观环境和完善内部审计规章制度五个方面入手。     

从08年雪灾看钢结构设计应该注意的部分细节

文章总结08年雪灾下因次构件设计不足导致厂房破坏的的几处细节。     

我国上市公司独立董事监督机制有效性研究

针对我国上市公司内部监督机制存在的问题分析的独立董事监督机制现状以及失效的原因,并对独立董事监督机制有效性进行了研究,给出五个基本假设,采用我国上市公司的相关数据作为样本进行的实证研究,结果发现次级委员会设置是影响上市公司独立董事内部监督是否有效的因素,并且呈正相关。     

Non-price strategic behavior: the case of bank branches

We perform an empirical study of banks’ branching decisions as a strategic non-price variable in an oligopolistic setting. Using panel data of banks from Norway, we find clear evidence that banks act strategically in their branching decisions, taking into consideration the future response from rival banks. The analysis is applied to a unique data set which covers the entire banking sector during both pre- and post-banking crisis periods, where very different types of conduct are found in each of these periods both for banks and borrowers. Moreover, we find that a bank specific branch-network does not confer externality on other banks. As a result branch network affects only market shares but not market size.