The effect of exit barriers upon strategic flexibility

The conceptual construct, exit barriers, is expanded using both statistical findings and the results of field studies. The immobility of resources, it is suggested, can be overcome by helping marginal competitors to exit from potentially volatile businesses. The implementation of such tactics can be adapted to the firm's own strategic commitment and to the nature of the business in question, although it is expected that firms which might consider purchasing the physical and intangible assets of competitors in order to help them to scale high exit barriers, must themselves perceive the business to be of sufficiently high strategic importance to do so.     

Transforming identities: Accounting professionals and the transition to motherhood

This paper investigates the relationship between the experience of motherhood and employment within the UK accounting profession, by examining the oral history narratives of a small group of accountants who have recently become mothers and returned to work. Drawing from contemporary theories on identity, it considers how individuals make sense of the different social identities of accountant and mother, and to what extent social, institutional and cultural factors shape and restrict the ways in which the self is experienced. It also explores the implications for both the self and the accounting profession of interconnections and juxtapositions between the ostensibly private sphere of the home and the public sphere of employment. It suggests that as the identities of mother and accountant are entwined, they undertake a process of redefinition and transformation of the self.     

A classification of business-to-business buying decisions: risk importance and probability as a framework for e-business benefits

Business-to-business (B2B) markets have been considered an attractive e-business venue for the realization of cost reduction and exchange creation utilities. However, as marketers have long argued, there are different types of buying situations, and the benefits sought in each may vary substantially. The present work builds on the thinking of previous industrial buying typologies by integrating perceived risk concepts into the business buying decision. Specifically, we develop a classification grid of industrial buying situations and then explicitly link likely e-business benefits to the various situations. The proposed framework holds implications for management and research related to supply chain relationships.     

Social Capital and Organizational Change in High‐Involvement and Traditional Work Organizations

We present new evidence indicating that changing from a traditional human resource management (HRM) environment to an innovative one entails a change not only in formal work practices, but also in the informal networks and patterns of interaction among employees. We focus on differences in the social capital of these workplaces and measure differences in the structure of interactions and information transfer among employees across a sample of manufacturing lines with a common production technology and different HRM systems. We then consider the implications of these differences and show that the change from one form of workplace practices to the other is therefore not just a matter of paying for the direct costs of a new set of HRM practices. Rather, it would involve a disruptive overhaul in the entire network of interactions among all workers at the plant.     

The Impact of Financial Reporting Regulation on the Market Valuation of Reported Environmental Liabilities: Preliminary Evidence from US and Canadian Public Companies

This study investigates the economic consequences of four financial reporting regulations relating to environmental liability reporting in samples of 170 US and 156 Canadian public companies during the period 1984 to 1997. The study's purpose is to investigate the factors that make financial reporting regulation effective in enhancing the relevance and reliability of accounting information. Prior research provides the theory that financial reporting regulations impose costs on managers and create incentives for them to report accounting information that is relevant and unbiased. This study assesses these regulations' enforceability, which is viewed as arising from the regulator's power to enforce its regulations by sanctions or penalties. It tests whether the relation between market valuation and reported environmental liability accruals changes when the new regulations are enacted, and whether regulation with high enforceability has a more significant impact than regulation with low enforceability. This study uses a residual‐income valuation model to measure the valuation coefficient, or multiplier, on reported environmental liability accruals. Changes in this coefficient are used as indicators of changes in the market's assessment of the value relevance and bias of the reported accounting information. This study provides preliminary evidence indicating that financial reporting regulations issued by the securities market regulator and the accounting profession are associated with changes in the relation between market value and reported environmental liabilities in some cases, and suggests avenues for further international accounting research on the factors involved in financial reporting regulation's impact.     

Business Planning Practices of Family‐Owned Firms within a Quality Framework*

Study purpose is to investigate the contribution of an integrated, interfunctional approach to quality management, inclusive of family/business interface management, to the success of 572 small family firms, using multiple measures of success (congruity and business revenues). A positive customer reputation was the most important business goal for 44.6 percent of firms. Interface and business management significantly explained business revenue and congruity between business and family while controlling for owner and business characteristics. Family/business interface management explained 9.7 percent of congruity variance and 8.2 percent of gross revenue variance, whereas business management explained 3.3 percent of congruity variance and 2.2 percent of gross revenue variance.     

An Empirical Analysis of Post‐Merger Organizational Integration

We study post‐merger organizational integration using linked employer–employee data. Integration is implemented by reassigning a small number of high‐skilled workers, especially in R&D and management. Workforce mixing is concentrated to establishments set up after merger, rather than to previously existing establishments. Worker turnover is high after merger, but new hiring yields stable total employment. Target employees have higher turnover and reassignment, particularly if the target firm is small relative to the acquiring firm. These findings might suggest that integration is costly, but can be achieved by focusing on key employees. Alternatively, the reassignment of a few key employees is sufficient for achieving integration.     

Online banking adoption: We should know better 20 years on

During the 20 year lifetime of the Journal of Financial Services Marketing the study of online banking adoption has emerged and matured as a field. Now 20 years on, we reflect on the accumulated online banking adoption knowledge and consider what this tells us. On the basis of an audit of published research over a 10-year period, 1998–2008, we identify the core theories and approaches utilised to study online banking. The findings reveal the widespread application of the Technology Adoption Model (TAM). Drawing on the current debate regarding TAM within the Information Systems domain, we critically evaluate the ongoing appropriateness of TAM for online banking adoption research, and call for a refreshed approach to the study of bank technology adoption. The paper concludes by highlighting other theories that offer potential to extend knowledge in this area.