The coalitional approach to core theory

The Core-Walras Equivalence is examined in a finite or infinite economy in which the competitive gap is bounded by the size of the atoms in the economy. The economy is represented by a Boolean algebra of coalitions, and coalitions rather than individual agents are taken as a primitive concept. Coalition arbitrage plays the central role in our analysis.     

An empirical database for a general equilibrium model of the European Communities

We document the main features of a database that has been constructed for use in an applied general equilibrium model. The model is designed to evaluate policies of the European Community (EC), including membership. The database includes each of the major members of the EC in the 1970's: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland. It also includes three further trading regions: the United States, Japan and a residual Rest of World. Four aspects of our database are documented. The first is the collection and use of “raw data” from a number of sources for 1975. The second aspect is the generation of a multi-year database, with 1975 serving as a “reference year” for temporal updates to more recent years. The third aspect is the application of the database to the calibration of a “generic” general-equilibrium trade model. The final aspect is the use of the database to study the historical accession of the United Kingdom to the EC.     

Codes of Practice and Ethics in the UK Communications Industry

The media, advertising and public relations are all regulated in some degree by ethical codes of practice, but do they work and do they help practitioners? The author is Senior Lecturer in public relations and philosophy at Leeds Business School, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds LS2 8AF. She is currently preparing material for a new MA in Business Policy and Ethics, to be offered jointly by Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of Leeds.     

Financial Opacity and Firm Performance: The Readability of REIT Annual Reports

We examine the capital market pricing implications of firm disclosure opacity as measured by the linguistic readability of REIT annual reports. The SEC has expressed concern that firms selectively manage the transparency of disclosures in order to hide adverse information. After controlling for other non-experimental factors that influence the readability of REIT financial statements, we find (1) financial opacity is negatively related to reported firm performance, and (2) the residual opacity that remains after controlling for other determinants of annual report readability has incremental explanatory power for returns beyond the Fama and French (1992, 1993) risk factors. The opacity risk-return premium persists after controlling for a (heretofore undocumented) stark monotonic decrease in annual report readability following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.     

Resource interaction in inter-organizational networks: Introduction to the special issue

This article introduces the special issue of Journal of Business Research on the topic of resource interaction in inter-organizational networks. Both networks and resources receive considerable attention in the field of business studies. As companies specialize further and rely on cooperative agreements with external parties, the importance of networks is gaining increasing recognition. Resources are typically a key factor for identifying a company's competencies, or its sources of growth, profitability, and sustained competitive advantage. This special issue takes a novel approach by directing attention toward the processes of interaction in which companies combine and recombine resources at the network level. This approach provides new insights into the development, production, exchange, and use of resources. The introductory article also reviews the 13 articles in this special issue and concludes by discussing their contributions to the fields of marketing, innovation, entrepreneurship, and logistics.     

The role of e-Health in the changng health care environment

In 2005 health care organizations spent 2.3% of total operating expenses on information technology and are slowly developing the infrastructure necessary to expand e-Health capabilities. E-Health is being recognized as a method to improve the overall health status of the population. It is important to build partnerships among health care providers, local community organizations, and national health care associations to ensure the continued development of e-Health initiatives. This study has managerial implications associated with the strategic application of e-Health systems and policy implications on future resource allocation.     

Adoption of activity management practices: a note on the extent of adoption and the influence of organizational and cultural factors

We examine the extent to which activity management practices are adopted by Australian business units at each of Gosselin's [Gosselin, M., 1997. The effect of strategy and organizational structure on the adoption and implementation of activity-based costing. Acc. Organ. Society 22 (2), 105–122] levels of Activity Analysis, Activity Cost Analysis and Activity-based Costing. We also examine the association between extent of adoption and the organizational factors of size and decision usefulness of cost information, and the business unit culture dimensions of innovation, outcome orientation, and tight versus loose control.Data were collected by mail survey questionnaire of a random sample of business units, with questionnaire design and distribution based on Dillman's [Dillman, D.A., 2000. Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York] Tailored Design Method. Adoption rates are found to be higher than in prior studies, suggesting the continuing relevance of activity management practices and the advantage of using Gosselin's (1997) levels. All factors were found to be associated with all activity management practices. In particular, business unit size and all three business unit culture dimensions were found to be associated with extent of adoption of Activity Analysis (AA) and Activity Cost Analysis (ACA), while decision usefulness and the cultural dimensions of outcome orientation and tight versus loose control were associated with Activity-based Costing.