Commentary: Some Further Evidence on Discount Rate Selection in the Context of Goodwill Impairment Testing

In an earlier edition of this journal, we published evidence relating to the nature of discount rates chosen by a sample of large Australian‐listed firms in the context of their goodwill impairment testing ( Carlin and Finch 2009 ). We argued that our evidence suggested that the rigour of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) goodwill impairment testing process was being undermined by inappropriate choice of discount rates on the part of many firms. In a commentary published alongside our article, questions were raised as to the validity of our conclusions and the methodology we applied in our study ( Gallery 2009 ). Subsequently, Bradbury has also contributed to the debate, raising similar concerns to those voiced by Gallery ( Bradbury 2010 ). In this brief paper, we provide further and better particulars in relation to our original dataset in a bid to assist those who have taken an interest in this debate to further inform their view of the merits (or otherwise) of the case we made in our original article.     

Valuing consumer safety

Snowboarding is quickly becoming a popular sport at alpine resorts. In contrast to alpine skiing, where injuries to the knee and thumb are most common, the wrist (and forearm) and ankle are the most frequently injured body regions for snowboarders. Unfortunately, the rapid international growth of the sport has not been matched by detailed epidemiological evaluation of the injuries specific to snowboarding or the countermeasures to prevent them. The aim of this paper is to critically review the literature describing injury prevention measures, or countermeasures, for snowboarding. In doing so, it provides an evaluation of the extent to which these countermeasures have been demonstrated to be effective or associated with the occurrence of new types of injuries. Few countermeasures specific for snowboarding were found to have been formally evaluated. The countermeasures to which some attention has been paid are boots, bindings, wrist guards, skill level and methods of falling. Skill level and the other injury countermeasures apply more generally across the sport. Recommendations for countermeasure implementation include: education for snowboarders, adherence to snow conduct and safety codes, preparing snowboarders for their activity and maintenance of parks and runs. Recommendations for improved data collections include: standardising and maintaining existing data collections, collecting information about equipment used by snowboarders and monitoring injury trends. Further biomechanical and epidemiological research needs to be undertaken on knee/ankle and wrist/forearm injuries. Evaluation of countermeasures needs to keep pace with the rapid developments in this field. Particular attention should be directed towards evaluations of the role of wristguards, boots/bindings, fall technique and lessons in preventing injuries. Given the rapidly increasing popularity of the sport, the need for the safety equipment to be evaluated would seem to be a priority, along with identification of the mechanisms of injury.     

Recursive residuals for linear mixed models

Quality & Quantity - This paper presents and extends the concept of recursive residuals and their estimation to an important class of statistical models, Linear Mixed Models (LMM). Recurrence...     

Short reports

In this study, we assessed the epidemiological patterns of suicide terrorism in the civilian population of Pakistan. Information about suicide terrorism-related events, deaths and injuries was extracted from the South-Asian Terrorism Portal (SATP) for the period from 2002 to October 2009. Of 198 events, civilians were involved in 194 events. Civilians accounted for 74.1% (N = 2017) of those who died and 93.8% (N = 6129) of those who were injured. In nine districts, mortality rates were more than one death per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The yearly trend showed a shift of attack targets from foreigners and sectarian targets in 2002–2005 to security forces or general public in 2006–2009. Attacks on public installations (mosques) or political gatherings resulted in a significantly greater (P ≤ 0.02) number of deaths (22 vs. 8) and injuries (59 vs. 24) per event compared with security installations. These results show that prevention might focus on political negotiation with armed groups and that appropriate measures should be taken to protect mosques and political gatherings.     

Developing maintenance craft labor efficiency through an integrated planning and control system: A prescriptive model

The area of maintenace management has been placed under increasing pressure because of changes in the manufacturing production planning and control systems. In the last few years plant management has been asked to respond to productivity and quality challenges unmatched in business history. The maintenance department plays an important, indeed vital, role in the attainment of improved levels of productivity and quality.This article examines the relationship between production and maintenance management systems. A conceptual model is developed that integrates the preventive and corrective aspects of maintenance planning with the priority and capacity activities of the production planning system. The model assists management in scheduling maintenance craft labor for additional efficiency and effectiveness.     

Adapting an established measure of supervision for beach settings: is the parent supervision attributes profile questionnaire reliable?

The Parent Supervision Attributes Profile Questionnaire (PSAPQ), developed to measure aspects of caregiver supervision and protectiveness and previously applied within playgrounds and in the home, was modified for implementation in a beach setting. To assess the test-retest reliability of the PSAPQ beach modification (PSAPQ-BEACH), 20 caregivers completed the PSAPQ-BEACH twice, over a mean interval of 18 days (range 10-24). The test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the PSAPQ-BEACH scores were compared to those of the PSAPQ. All scores on the PSAPQ-BEACH were higher than the PSAPQ, providing evidence that the questionnaire remains reliable after its adaptation to beach settings.     

Fundamental‐based Market Strategies

A significant body of literature has raised the possibility that portfolio outperformance based on a simple accounting‐based investment strategy can persist through time because markets may ignore and potentially misinterpret financial market signals. Employing a fundamental‐based strategy, we show that superior performance can be earned consistently through time by identifying and investing in firms with more favourable performance and credit signals. The strength of these portfolios are additionally characterised by the ability of the strategies to avoid firms with poor future prospects. These findings are robust across varying time periods after both transaction costs and related market constraints are considered.     

Managing in conflict: How actors distribute conflict in an industrial network

IMP researchers have examined conflict as a threat to established business relationships and commercial exchanges, drawing on theories and concepts developed in organization studies. We examine cases of conflict in relationships from the oil and gas industry's service sector, focusing on conflicts of interest and resources, and conflict as experienced by actors. Through a comparative case study design, we propose an explanation of how actors manage conflict and manage in conflict given that they tend to value and maintain relationships beyond episodes of exchange. We consider conflicts in relationships from a network perspective, showing that actors experienced these while adapting to changes in their business setting, modifying their roles in that network. By identifying conflict with the organizing forms of relationship and network, we show how actors formulate conflict through pursuing and combining a number of strategies, distributing the conflict across an enlarged network.     

Firms and industries in evolutionary economics: lessons from Marshall, Young, Steindl and Penrose

Evolutionary economists have tended to assess firms and industries separately, neglecting the role of their interaction in the process of economic growth and development. We trace the separation of firms and industries to the introduction of population thinking in the discipline of industrial economics, including some broadly evolutionary analyses. If researchers conflate a population of firms with an industry, they introduce “thin” means of relating firms to one another and to industries. Despite his device of the ‘representative firm’, Marshall develops “thick” means of relating firms to industries by means of their internal and external organizations. Penrose avoids the notion of industry by focussing on heterogeneous and potentially mobile firms. Young and Steindl develop mundane explanations of firms’ relations within groups and locate the impetus for economic growth in a poorly understood environment. We conclude that evolutionary economists should revisit firms’ boundaries, not in the sense of explaining the existence of firms but in a relating and communicating sense in which boundaries signify the selective means of firms’ relationships.     

Ricardo and the Utilitarians

From the late 1940s to the early 1970s Andrews, Downie, Penrose and Richardson contributed to reassessments of Marshall's explanation of industrial organization. Each author emphasizes a particular aspect of industrial organization — internal and external organization, innovation, and cross-entry — and each elaborates Marshall's much discussed notion of evolutionary principles. Marshall sought coordination of developing knowledge and feared atrophy through concentration, drawing evidence from empirical studies of firms succeeding one another. The post-Marshallians undertook research in an age of larger joint stock companies, and drew conclusions, varying from optimistic to pessimistic, concerning the role of competition in shaping economic development.