Information Quality of Interim Financial Statements

Expressing concern about the Canadian capital market environment, Boritz (2006) suggested that the accounting and auditing profession may be paying limited attention to quarterly reports. This study investigates whether fourth‐quarter adjustments are significantly different from the previous three, thereby limiting the reliability or faithful representation of the firms' results for each quarter. This study includes four years (2003–2006) of quarterly financial information of 353 Canadian public companies. Our results indicate that the volatility of net income in each of the first three quarters is considerably lower than in the final quarter. While lower volatility can improve predictability, the resulting relevance may be limited. The low volatility of reported earnings in the first three quarters suggests that either earnings management is taking place or that management may not be exercising sufficient care at the end of each of the first three quarters on the measurements that generally accepted accounting principles call for and readers of financial statements expect. This could result in quarterly financial statements that do not faithfully represent the underlying resources and obligations of the reporting firms at the end of the quarter, or the firm's performance during the quarter. Our findings support Boritz's proposition for increased audit requirements for interim reports and changes in the approach to the annual audit to integrate it more closely with interim financial reporting.     

Evidence of Manager Intervention to Avoid Working Capital Deficits

We study managers’ interventions in financial reporting by examining working capital deficits, measured as current ratios less than 1.0. Current ratios represent important balance sheet liquidity indicators to lenders and creditors, and have an identifiable and naturally occurring reference point at 1.0, analogous to the profit/loss income statement reference point. We find that distributions of reported current ratios of both U.S. and non‐U.S. firms exhibit a discontinuity at 1.0. For U.S. firms, we find that the discontinuity increases with exogenous increases in the cost of credit in the economy, and that determinants of the likelihood to achieve a given current ratio are diagnostic precisely at the 1.0 discontinuity location but not at other nearby locations in the current ratio distribution. U.S. firms that avoid working capital deficits report lower proportions of inventory and higher proportions of accounts receivable in current assets and, when credit is tight, higher proportions of cash, consistent with managers increasing sales volume so as to capitalize profit margins and thereby increase current assets. For non‐U.S. firms, the discontinuity is more pronounced for observations from common law countries, a proxy for jurisdictions where financial reports are more intended to provide decision‐useful information. The evidence suggests that managers intervene to achieve a balance sheet reporting objective that stems from stakeholder use of reference points.     

U.S. tourist destinations: A history of desirability

This study supplies a ranking of the most desirable tourist destinations for US travelers from 1907 through 1980, as gauged from a content analysis of travel-related advertisements appearing in two national magazines; Harper's Monthly and National Geographic. The amount of advertising space that features each destination is calculated, and from these totals the rankings of desirable destinations are derived. Maps and accompanying narrative give external validity to the content analysis, while use of consistent coding forms provides reliability. Listings of frequently visited areas accompany each map and narrative, and these in turn generally agree with those developed from the advertisements.     

The guided tour a sociological approach

In an exploratory study of guides and based on data derived from research combining observation and extended interviews, the relationship between guides, drivers, and their passengers is examined. The evidence suggests that the guiding role is not yet institutionalized, and remains open to interpretation by guides and passengers alike. The role of guiding involves a number of subsidiary and sometimes conflicting sub-roles, of which the information-giving function is emphasized by guides themselves, in their drive for professional status. Guides are found to develop manipulative and dramaturgical skills to satisfy their passengers' quest for a unique touristic experience. The mediation of the guide as “culture-broker” eases and may make more meaningful the contrived and artificial relationship between tourists and their hosts.     

The Grand Isle,Louisiana resort cycle

Grand Isle, the most popular resort on the Louisiana Gulf Coast, has experienced an increase in shoreline erosion and a decrease in attractiveness in recent decades. Viewing the historical evolution of the resort within the framework of Butler's “resort cycle” reveals that cultural processes are largely responsible for these developments. Individual stages of resort evolution on Grand Isle have been accompanied by changes in settlement patterns, changes in environmental perception, and increasing effort to “fix” a naturally dynamic shoreline. Attempts to maintain a stable beachfront have only heightened the problem and helped propel Grand Isle into the stagnation stage of the resort cycle. Past adherence to the resort evolution model indicates onset of the decline stage. Whether a major beach nourishment/island protection project completed in late 1984 represents more than a temporary rejuvenation of the resort depends upon its effectiveness.     

United States international tourism policy

This article describes the key mechanisms in the United States for tourism policy-making. It points out the importance of tourism policy and planning for the orderly growth of tourism in the future. The important features of the National Tourism Policy Act of 1981 are presented. The article concludes by suggesting the policy role of the United States Government in furthering tourism interests within the context of international economic and trade policy.     

Comment on Richter''s political implications of Chinese tourism policy

The purpose of this study was to analyze the development of tourism in American Samoa. The government in American Samoa initiated efforts to develop tourism during the early 1960's. In spite of this, tourism in American Samoa is still in an early development stage. Internal factors which have constrained tourism growth have been the limited natural resources and underlying conflict between the traditional Samoan culture versus western ideas. External factors in the form of increased competition from nearby destinations and shifts in airline services also have limited the number of tourists to the area. The development of tourism in American Samoa is relevant to other less popular and newly developing destinations in the Pacific. Thus, it illustrates the risks and problems in developing tourism in similar Pacific destinations.     

Ethnic tourism,the state,and cultural change in Southeast Asia

International tourism in Southeast Asia increasingly involves a restructuring of the relationship between the state and local cultures. A typology identifies the roles that culture and ethnicity play in Southeast Asian tourism. Tourism involves the state in new relationships with local cultures—as planner of tourist development, as marketer of cultural meanings, as arbiter of cultural practices displayed to tourists, and as an arena for new forms of politics. The state's role is contradictory and complex, as tourism leads to increased state intervention in local cultures and, at the same time, provides cultural groups with new means of pressing claims against the state.     

Tourism's regional development impacts : A comparative analysis of the Greek islands

This paper explores the conditions that determine tourism development and theorizes how these conditions lead to a variety of impacts on host communities. Thirty-eight Greek islands were statistically analyzed using secondary data and a smaller sample was studied in greater detail through a comparative case-study approach. While the quantity of tourism development was found to be subject to demand, its quality and integration with other sectors were associated with the size of the community. Tourism impacts were found to be beneficial in larger islands. In smaller islands with high tourist activity, while a reverse in declining demographic patterns has been observed, tourism was found to create unstable, short-term, and dualistic development. The paper concludes that factors such as the local institutional capacity to absorb development and the potential interaction of locals and tourists should be considered in the making of tourism policy.     

Tourism and economic diversification in Hong Kong

Input-output techniques are used to assess the role of tourism in the economic diversification in Hong Kong. It is found that, in comparison with domestic manufacturing, the value-added content and labor productivity of tourism are relatively high, and tourism requires very little energy, not many laborers, moderate amounts of capital and appreciable amounts of skills, all of which are ideal in an environment of rocketing energy costs, rising wages, and fast growth with rapid accumulation of capital and skills. Moreover, the shares of tourism in GDP and total employment have been increasing due to decreasing leakage. On the demand side, the growth of tourist exports is more stable than many major commodity exports partly because tourism is less subject to import protectionism. Tourism is thus considered a prime choice in the current economic diversification of Hong Kong.