Climate for Scandal: Corporate Environments that Contribute to Accounting Fraud

We examine the governance characteristics, earnings quality, growth rates, dividend policy, and compensation structure of 97 firms recently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for accounting fraud. Our results show that the corporate environment most likely to lead to an accounting scandal manifests significant growth and accounting practices that are already pushing the envelope of earnings smoothing. Firms operating in this environment seem more likely to tip over the edge into fraud if there are fewer outsiders on the audit committee and outside directors appear overcommitted.     

On the Hausdorff dimension of exceptional random sets generated by multivariate spacings

We consider multivariate spacings blocks in the usual sense (refer to Deheuvels (Z Wahrsch Verw Gebiete 64:411–424, 1983)). We consider the sets of exceptional points in the neighborhood of which such spacings are, infinitely often, unusually large. Our main result, in the spirit of Hawkes (Math Proc Camb Phil Soc 293–303, 1981), shows that these sets constitute random fractals, whose Hausdorff dimensions are explicitly evaluated.     

Early internet IPOs versus subsequent entrants

This paper examines whether investors in early Internet IPOs earned superior returns to those who invested in later entrants. We document three differences between early public firms in a new Internet technology and their followers: underpricing, operating characteristics at the IPO, and stock price performance after the IPO. We find that there is value in going public relatively early in a new Internet technology. Specifically, long-term returns are significantly higher for the early entrants. We also find evidence, consistent with previous studies that examine hot IPO markets, that the early public firms have better operating characteristics at the IPO than later entrants.     

Retirement and transition phenomena in the family purchase process

Research is needed on the family purchase process of retirement‐age couples, because 78 million baby boomers are rapidly approaching retirement age. Both boomers and the retirement‐age couples in this study present special opportunities to marketers through new roles adopted in retirement. This study reports on perceptions of family purchase process participation among retirement‐age couples. Results indicate that transition retirees' family purchase process participation differs from that of post‐transition retirees. This finding has managerial implications for marketers wishing to serve desirable segments of current and future retirement‐age consumers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Measuring Interviewer Performance in Telephone Surveys

In this research paper, the definition of interviewer performance is restricted to mean the capacity of an interviewer to convince a respondent to cooperate. Furthermore, it is restricted to performance in telephone surveys. To measure this aspect of performance, researchers have until now used the cooperation rate, calculated as the number of completed interviews divided by the sum of completes plus refusals, generally retaining only the first contacts made to a given phone number in order to avoid contaminating the measure with the performance of a previous interviewer. In this paper, we argue that this measure is biased because it does not allow for the measurement of performance when interviewers, usually the best ones, work on refusal conversion or on appointments. We propose a new measure of the net contribution of interviewers to the overall cooperation rate – the Net Contribution to Performance Index (NCPI) – that measures interviewer performance irrespective of the task they perform. The properties of the index are compared with the cooperation rate at first contact using a number of criteria: reliability, variability and relationship with the overall response rate, and internal and external validity. Appendix A explains how to calculate the new index.     

Does Individualizing the Labor Contract Hurt Women?

The twenty‐first century has been marked by a retreat of the collective bargaining rights of public employees throughout the United States. This study exploits the variation in legal environments resulting from these reforms to estimate the causal impact of different collective bargaining policies on public employee compensation. Using data from the American Community Survey, results show a modest wage penalty at the aggregate level for employees covered by constraints on collective bargaining. However, this wage penalty is differential and is concentrated on women in all but one case—a legal environment in which collective bargaining over wages has either been prohibited or directly constricted, allowing governments to periodically institute wage freezes and caps on raises for public employees. In this case, a pre‐existing wage gap in which men earned more than women is disappearing as male and female earnings converge at a lower wage. The paper suggests that the long‐term effects of restricting collective bargaining occur through the individualization of the labor contract and should be examined along individual‐level characteristics, such as gender.     

Three decades of productivity change in French beef production: a Färe‐Primont index decomposition

The Färe‐Primont index is used to evaluate total factor productivity (TFP) change and its components for a sample of French suckler cow farms in grassland areas in 1985–2014. The results reveal an increase in TFP of 6.6 per cent over the whole observation period, with technological progress being the major source of productivity growth. Meanwhile, efficiency decreased. Farms experienced great technological progress from 1991 to 2000. From a methodological point of view, the comparison with results obtained with Malmquist indexes shows similar trends but different magnitudes, with the Malmquist index overestimating the TFP and technological changes compared to the Färe‐Primont index. In addition, the use of a sequential approach that restricts technological change to being positive or null allows for the precise calculation of technology changes, disregarding the effects of external conditions that are captured in efficiency changes. Finally, the estimation of full dimensional efficient facets (FDEFs) that guarantees the positivity of all shadow prices used to assess the mix efficiency component of TFP change is promising.     

Stories from the field: women’s networking as gender capital in entrepreneurial ecosystems

Small Business Economics - Women are under-represented in successful entrepreneurial ecosystems and the creation of women-only entrepreneurial networks has been a widespread policy response. We...     

Flipped v’s traditional teaching perspectives in a first year accounting unit: an action research study

With the need to move accounting students towards deeper learning approaches and understandings, this first cycle of an action research study sought to determine the student’s perspective of the flipped learning approach. With this learning approach gaining momentum in recent times, this study focuses on a first-year introductory accounting class in an undergraduate business degree. In making changes to the learning environment, we survey students and find that there are significant differences between the flexible student, that is, students that are already exposed in a limited way to this approach, and the face-to-face student. Results indicate further action research is required if the flipped learning approach is to be considered a serious teaching and learning contender for the first-year student.     

The impact of diversity and equality management on firm performance: Beyond high performance work systems

This article demonstrates that a diversity and equality management system (DEMS) contributes to firm performance beyond the effects of a traditional high‐performance work system (HPWS), which consists of bundles of work practices and policies used extensively in high‐performing firms. A DEMS typically includes diversity training and monitoring recruitment, pay, and promotion across minority or other disadvantaged groups. Our analysis of quantitative data from service and manufacturing organizations in Ireland confirms that HPWS practices are associated with positive business performance and finds specifically that DEMS practices are positively associated with higher labor productivity and workforce innovation and lower voluntary employee turnover. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.