The interplay between cost accounting knowledge and presentation formats in cost-based decision-making

Most studies on cost-based decision-making examine the profit impact of cost reports that rely on different methods to allocate costs. In practice, firms’ cost reports often employ the same cost allocation method with subtle variations in the way that the cost data are presented. This paper examines experimentally the profit impact of a cost report’s presentation format in relation to a decision maker’s level of cost accounting knowledge. Using a customer profitability report prepared using activity-based costing and presented in either a tabular or a graphical format, participants analyze a complex pricing and resource allocation task that affects firm profitability. The results suggest a strong relation between presentation format and cost accounting knowledge. Specifically, decision makers with a low level of cost accounting knowledge attain higher profits when they use a graphical format in comparison to a tabular format. More surprisingly, graphs (versus tables) have an adverse effect on profits for users with a high level of cost knowledge. This result has broad implications: in order to facilitate the decisions of a variety of users of accounting data (e.g. managers, external investors, etc.), firms may need to adapt the presentation format of their accounting data to the level of accounting sophistication of the users.     

Person–organization fit and the war for talent: does diversity management make a difference?

This study investigates the importance of diversity management in applicants' job choice decisions. According to the person–organization fit theory, individuals make assessments of fit between their personal values and the values of the organizations, and they make job choice decisions based on these assessments. A survey of 113 MBA job seekers concluded that women and ethnic minorities found diversity management to be important when accepting offers of employment. In addition, high achievers and new immigrants rated organizations with diversity management as more attractive as potential employers. The findings suggest a need to place a higher emphasis on diversity management in women and minority applicant attraction.     

Development of a conceptual model to understand international social entrepreneurship and its application in the Ugandan context

While the concept of social entrepreneurship is relatively new, initiatives that employ entrepreneurial capacities to solve social problems have existed throughout history. In this paper, the factors explaining international social entrepreneurial behavior are investigated. The key argument is that behavioral potential, which is at the cognitive level, is influenced by an individual's perceptions toward social enterprise venturing. These perceptions could be related to feasibility, desirability, or propensity to act, among others. Personal, sociological, and environmental variables are linked to decision making through these perceptions. This research is based on literature review and case studies. The analysis indicates that individuals' perceptions or attitudes can explain aspects of their international social entrepreneurial potential. Areas for future research are discussed.     

Heterogeneous Popularity and Exporting Uncertainty

Empirical work shows that a considerable fraction of firms quit the export market soon after entrance. A natural interpretation to this quick exit from the export market is that firms did not predict the profitability of their variety correctly before entry. In this paper a firm heterogeneity model is put forward to account for this type of exporting uncertainty due to lack of information. Firms are heterogeneous with respect to the popularity of their good, technically the CES weight, and the popularity of a good varies across markets. Therefore, firms are uncertain about the profitability of their good in the export market. Upon payment of sunk export costs the popularity of the good is revealed and some firms stay in the export market while others leave. Comparative statics show that lower sunk export costs lead to higher probability that firms start to export, but to lower probability of export success. Lower fixed export costs instead lead to both a higher probability to start exporting and to be successful in exporting.     

卫生技术评估与循证医学：我们研究的是什么？

本期《健康价值》（《Value in Health》特刊刊载了五个国家技术评估（Technology Assessment，TA）方面的文章，主要介绍了这些国家技术评估的范围，如何制定相关决策以及技术评估手段如何支持这些决策。每篇文章的着眼点各不相同。这些文章将有助于读者更好地了解这些国家的决策制定过程和技术评估方法。若将这些文章综合参考的话，则可以获得更大的启示。     

Measuring the Incidence of Over- and Undereducation

We deploy the unique opportunity of a dataset of Flemish school leavers to measure the incidence of over- and undereducation on the basis of the six applied measures in the literature. The incidence of overeducation in the first job after leaving school ranges from only 8% to 51%, undereducation ranges from 3% to 21%. While 66% is overeducated on the basis of at least one measure, only 3% is overeducated on the basis of every measure. Mismatch correlations range from 5% to 82%. Also the categories in terms of gender, educational level and region of residence with the highest likelihood of being overeducated depend on the measure. These findings clearly underline the weakness of the literature on this subject. However, measuring overeducation in different ways enables to derive some alternative concepts. Genuine overeducation amounts to about 20%. The incidence of over- and undereducation is both attributed to qualification inflation and deflation, and a credential gap. Finally, about 80% of the incidence of overeducation is classified as being structural.