Improving Software Flexibility for Business Process Changes

In times of continuous change, companies need to adjust their business processes to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Resulting changes in the company’s IT currently require the involvement of developers from departments that are mostly not aligned with the business. These changes often result in high transaction and labor costs. The article presents a platform-based method to adjust business processes with the aim of increasing both efficiency and flexibility compared to current approaches. The core of our work is an evaluation against traditional component-based software development using a sound simulation model. Three real-world scenarios of business process change show that – despite a slight increase in transaction costs – our suggested method decreases labor costs while increasing operational flexibility.     

Die Bedeutung der Kostenstruktur für die Effektivität von Staatshilfen

Wirtschaftsdienst - Die Corona-Krise führt bei vielen Unternehmen zu andauernden Umsatzeinbrüchen, die einen akuten Liquiditätsbedarf verursachen, sofern laufende Kosten nicht...     

Interorganizational relationships and hospital financial performance: a resource-based perspective

This study follows a resource-based theory perspective and aims to analyze the interorganizational relationships between hospitals and outpatient physicians, and hospital financial performance. In the light of increasing interdependence among healthcare providers which has made the coordination of service provision more complex, such relationships could be considered a resource for hospitals that lead to higher performance. In this study, the results from a survey of medical directors were combined with financial performance indicators of their hospitals. The results show that having effective interorganizational relationships is positively associated with the hospital's profitability. This finding emphasizes the importance of an investment in interorganizational relationships from the hospital's point of view.     

Relations between communist and third world countries

Despite the unproportionately low level of Soviet economic assistance, Soviet influence in the Third World is quite considerable at present. Taking this fact as a starting point the following article examines the principles guiding relations between communist and developing countries.     

Interpreting the European Union’s IFRS Endorsement Criteria: The Case of IFRS 9

EU Regulation requires that any international accounting standards (International Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS) and interpretations (IFRIC) pronounced by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) meet three sets of criteria before they become binding for EU-based companies: a ‘true and fair view’ criterion, a list of qualitative criteria, and a ‘European public good’ criterion. During the endorsement process, EU institutions evaluate each standard or interpretation’s compliance with these three criteria. Nevertheless, despite plenty of past endorsement decisions, there is still disagreement about a unanimous interpretation of the criteria in the literature. In this study, we interpret all three criteria against the background of European accounting law and academic accounting research. Then, the paper illustrates for the case of the new IFRS 9 standard on accounting for financial instruments how these criteria can be applied in the endorsement practice. We conclude that the standard cannot reasonably be rejected on grounds of the IAS Regulation. We also explain that the vagueness of the endorsement criteria and the inherent discretion in the eventual endorsement decision help maintain the EU’s political influence on the IASB’s standard-setting ex ante.     

Fair Value‐related Information in Analysts’ Decision Processes: Evidence from the Financial Crisis

We use a sample of conference calls and analyst research reports from international banks to examine how financial analysts request and communicate fair value‐related information in their valuation process. We find that analysts devote considerable attention to fair value‐related topics. Most of the conference call questions and references in research reports pertain to fair value reclassifications and fair value changes of liabilities resulting from banks’ own credit risk. The accounting impact of these one‐time effects during the financial crisis and a lack of corresponding firm disclosures help to explain the prevalence of these two topics. The content of the questions and references suggests that analysts have different motives for their interest in fair value‐related information. While some analysts adjust reported earnings for unrecognised fair value changes of reclassified assets, most of the observed analysts exclude banks’ own credit risk effects from reported earnings. Thus, the use of fair value‐related information varies substantially across analysts and across instruments.     

The IASB's Discussion Paper on the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting: A Commentary and Research Review

Consistent with the mission of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) to “promote global excellence in accounting education and research, and to maximize accounting academics' contribution to the development and maintenance of high‐quality, globally recognized standards of accounting practice,” this paper provides a commentary and research review by an ad hoc committee of the IAAER on the IASB's Discussion Paper DP/2013/1—A Review of the Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting. The comments focus on four main areas about which prior academic research can inform standard setters in their consideration of the revised Conceptual Framework: (1) recognition and derecognition, (2) measurement, (3) presentation and disclosure, and (4) other comprehensive income. The views expressed here by the ad hoc committee are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect a consensus view of the IAAER membership or its Executive Committee. The paper supports the IASB's general objective of developing one set of globally acceptable accounting standards based on a cohesive and complete Conceptual Framework.     

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