Gender differences in information processing: An empirical test of the hypothesis-confirming strategy in an audit context

Accounting education research reports that female students outperform male students. We posit that different information processing styles may have accounted for this difference. We postulate that because male students tend to process information selectively, they would rate confirming information as more important than female students would. Female students would rate disconfirming information as more important. We also postulate that male students are hypothesis-confirming whereas the female students are not. Consequently, female students being comprehensive processors, would rate the task as more difficult compared to male students. To test these propositions, 36 male and 33 female students performed an evaluation task that contained equal numbers of confirming and disconfirming cues. The students were required to rate the importance of these cues to their hypothesis. The results support our propositions except that female and male students do not rate confirming information significantly differently from each other.     

Rent Paying Ability and Racial Settlement Patterns

A bstract . Based on the belief that the major remaining hurdle to integration is economic , the proposition has frequently been advanced that if minority households could afford decent housing outside their current communities , many would move from their ghettoes into society at large. Evidence from two housing allowance demonstration projects and the recently completed Experimental Housing Allowance Program raises doubts as to the validity of this contention. While recipients of housing allowances frequently moved to better neighborhoods , only rarely were they able to break free of traditional settlement patterns . Findings suggest that while it may be necessary to increase the rent paying abilities of low-income minority households as a precondition of integration, that segregation is not likely to be eliminated until the social, psychological, and remaining legal issues associated with it are addressed as well.     

Reputation gaps and the performance of service organizations

Links between the reputation of organizations and their financial performance are intuitively attractive to assume, but often difficult to demonstrate convincingly. Gaps between employee and customer perceptions of corporate reputation have traditionally been associated with poor performance. In the context of service business and applying assimilation‐contrast theory, we hypothesize that the nature of such gaps will, in reality, have a differential effect on future revenue depending on the size and valence of the gap. The effects of small gaps should be assimilated by customers, but larger ones have a greater potential of creating a contrast effect resulting in significant increases or decreases in subsequent sales. In businesses where employees have a more positive view of the company reputation than customers, we hypothesize a growth in future sales, and where they have a relatively more negative view, a decline. We test the effects of what we label as reputation gaps in 56 business units drawn from nine service organizations and confirm our hypotheses. Among the implications of our findings are that managing reputation by elevating employee perceptions of a company's reputation above those perceived by its customers holds the potential to enhance future sales. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bayesian and Frequentist Inference for Ecological Inference: The R×C Case

In this paper we propose Bayesian and frequentist approaches to ecological inference, based on R × C contingency tables, including a covariate. The proposed Bayesian model extends the binomial-beta hierarchical model developed by K ing , R osen and T anner (1999) from the 2×2 case to the R × C case. As in the 2×2 case, the inferential procedure employs Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. As such, the resulting MCMC analysis is rich but computationally intensive. The frequentist approach, based on first moments rather than on the entire likelihood, provides quick inference via nonlinear least-squares, while retaining good frequentist properties. The two approaches are illustrated with simulated data, as well as with real data on voting patterns in Weimar Germany. In the final section of the paper we provide an overview of a range of alternative inferential approaches which trade-off computational intensity for statistical efficiency.     

Corporate Ethical Values and Altruism: The Mediating Role of Career Satisfaction

This study explores the ability of career satisfaction to mediate the relationship between corporate ethical values and altruism. Using a sample of individuals employed in a four-campus, regional health science center, it was determined that individual career satisfaction fully mediated the positive relationship between perceptions of corporate ethical values and self-reported altruism. The findings imply that companies dedicating attention to positive corporate ethical values can enhance employee attitudes and altruistic behaviors, especially when individuals experience a high degree of career satisfaction.     

The disclosure of key performance indicators in the public sector

This article investigates the disclosure of key performance indicators in the annual reports of Irish public sector organizations. It begins by discussing the two main driving forces behind public sector bodies disclosing performance information in their annual reports for the first time as well as looking at other contributing factors. The present situation with regard to the disclosure of key performance indicators in the whole of Ireland is then analysed. A number of annual reports from central government departments or agencies, local government bodies, other public sector entities and, in the case of the Republic of Ireland, semi-state organizations are examined to see whether such information is being disclosed and, more importantly, whether performance indicators are being linked to predetermined objectives and targets.     

The Benefit Function Approach to Modeling Price-Dependent Demand Systems: An Application of Duality Theory

In this article, we advocate more extensive use of the benefit function in specifying price-dependent or inverse demand models. We demonstrate how duality theory may be used to establish the interrelationships between the Marshallian (or Hicksian) inverse demands and Luenberger's adjusted price functions, allowing estimable inverse demands to be derived directly from a benefit function. We estimate two systems of inverse demands for Japanese quarterly fish consumption. Results indicate that the procedures and methods employed here appear promising, and may prove beneficial for quantity and welfare analysis when modeling systems of inverse demand functions.     

精益六西格玛的突破——层级设计使两种互斥方法取长补短

精益与六西格玛的关系是重大六西格玛会议中广受欢迎的话题,也是许多书籍和文章的主题.两者间的关系看上去似乎简单,但是实际应用起来却相当富有挑战性,因为将两者结合起来的方法实在是数不胜数.     

Would a stock by any other ticker smell as sweet?

Some stocks have meaningful ticker symbols; for example, LUV (Southwest Airlines), MOO (United Stockyards), and GEEK (Internet America). Such tickers might be a useful signal of the company's creativity, a memorable marker that appeals to investors, or a warning that the company feels it must resort to gimmicks to attract investors. This paper investigates the performance of stocks with memorable ticker symbols during the years 1984–2005 and finds that, on average, their daily returns are higher than for the overall market.     

Analysts' Earnings Forecasts and the Value Relevance of 20-F Reconciliations from non-U.S. to U.S. GAAP

This study extends existing research into the value relevance of reconciliations to U.S. GAAP by examining the role of analysts' earnings forecasts in explaining potential market reactions to the earnings reconciliation. One possible reason why the evidence on the value relevance of the earnings reconciliation is weak is that earnings are forecast by analysts. Their forecasts may pre-empt some of the information content of the earnings reconciliation disclosures. Our findings indicate that analysts' forecasts are value relevant and that they play a pre-emptive role for some firms. For others, however, the earnings reconciliation has information content that is not pre-empted by analysts' forecasts.