Education for a technological age

The flood of new technology arising from the revolutions in microelectronics and microbiology has created a significant demand for quality and flexibility in the current and future workforce. The information-based technological changes that society is undergoing will have profound effects on education. This article examines such effects, which will include reexamination of core curricula, revisions to technical education programmes, growing emphasis on technical literacy and significant shifts in the education system.     

Future fall-out from the genetic revolution

It is argued that the genetic engineering revolution now under way is fundamentally different from other industrial revolutions in that humans are developing the technological power to change themselves. This article begins with an overview of the technology involved, discusses the Human Genome Initiative (HGI) programme and gene therapy research, and then uses several possible future scenarios to discuss potential legal and ethical issues.     

On the timescales of sustainability and futurability

Sustainability has a plethora of ambiguous definitions, partly because there are no consistent timescales acceptable to all interested authors. Co-evolutionary processes between the anthroposphere and the biosphere offer an alternative to sustainability and hence the timescales could be examined by a simple systems analysis. We consider a system of anthropospheric food energy demand and entropy production to evaluate the timescales of sustainability at past technological revolutions in the anthroposphere. Our analysis suggests that each of technological revolutionary steps, the Neolithic/Agricultural, Industrial, and Information Revolutions, has forced the sustainability timescale to decrease by an order of 2. However, we suggest that the minimum timescale of the most recent sustainability is 100-400 years, which is longer than that implied by other sustainability indices (∼100 years). The recently emerged concept of ‘futurability’, an ideal form of sustainability, could help seek futurable states of human-environment interactions beyond the next few hundred years.     

Will more liberal arts courses fix the accounting curriculum?

The appropriate curricular balance between general and accounting education has been long contested and needs resolving as evidence suggests the model used at most schools is broken. One suggested fix would devote more of the accounting curriculum to liberal arts courses to produce accountants who could, for example, think critically and communicate effectively. However, ample evidence indicates that classical “liberal education” scarcely exists today, and what is offered in its place is often counterproductive, at worst, or adds little value at best. This paper reviews the current state of liberal education and concludes that what is actually delivered today by many arts and sciences colleges does not achieve the claimed benefits of a liberal education. Thus it falls on accounting educators to structure courses in ways that will make them exercises in liberal learning. The paper also discusses several strategies for enhancing the value of the general education component of each student’s education.     

Accounting and the global fight against corruption

This paper draws on a governmentality framing to consider the global fight against corruption and the role of accounting in that fight. Specifically it examines two contrasting modes of thought or ‘mentalities’ in the anticorruption field and the manner in which they shape, envision, and constitute the cultural and technological practice of accounting. The first of these—the orthodox mentality—is evident in the programmatic discourses and academic research of the major anticorruption organizations (esp., the World Bank, United Nations, IMF, OECD, and Transparency International). This mentality has us envision accounting’s involvement in the fight as part of a relatively unproblematic if not noble cause. The second, radical mentality draws on race-, gender-, and class-based commentaries and has us see accounting’s involvement in more ambivalent terms: as a potential enabler but also a potential constrainer of economic accountability and the achievement of the liberal republican dream.     

The Empire strikes back. Counterrevolutionary strategies for industry leaders

Industry leaders frequently worry that their companies will fall victim to some revolutionary business model or disruptive technology. But new research shows that it's strategically better for incumbents to counter a revolution than to ignore or fully embrace it. Successful incumbents rely on one or more of five approaches to restrain, modify, or, if necessary, neutralize a revolutionary threat. A company that perceives a revolution in its earliest stages can use containment strategies. By throwing up roadblocks--raising switching costs, perhaps, or launching discrediting PR efforts--an incumbent can often limit the degree to which customers and competitors accept a nascent insurgency. And, sometimes, revolutions die there. If not, early containment buys a company some time to shape the revolution so that it complements, rather than supersedes, the incumbent's strengths. And even if shaping efforts fail, they can give an industry leader more time to work out how to absorb the threat by bringing the new competencies or technologies inside the firm in such a way that they don't destroy its existing strengths and capabilities. When revolutions have progressed too far to slow them down, incumbents must take a more aggressive tack. Neutralizing strategies meet a revolution head-on and terminate it--by, say, temporarily giving away the benefits offered by the challenger for free. Annulment strategies allow the market leader to leapfrog over or sidestep the threat. These five strategic approaches need not be used in isolation, as a detailed case study of the way Anheuser-Busch countered the craft-beer revolution dramatically demonstrates. Sensible industry leaders do not lead revolutions; they know they may not survive the attempt. Instead, they prefer to lead counterrevolutions.     

Perspectives on accounting,commonalities & the public sphere

This paper examines the role accounting could perform in the public sphere. The public sphere is the arena where different values are examined, explored and determined. Through an examination of critical, liberal and postmodern accounting perspectives the paper explores how information can democratise our civil societies. One-sided positions that assert one tradition in favour of another are examined, with a view to creating an accountability vision that nurtures commonalities. The aim is to contribute to debates between critical, liberal and postmodern positions on the criterion of accountability.     

The forthcoming Artificial Intelligence (AI) revolution: Its impact on society and firms

The impact of the industrial and digital (information) revolutions has, undoubtedly, been substantial on practically all aspects of our society, life, firms and employment. Will the forthcoming AI revolution produce similar, far-reaching effects? By examining analogous inventions of the industrial, digital and AI revolutions, this article claims that the latter is on target and that it would bring extensive changes that will also affect all aspects of our society and life. In addition, its impact on firms and employment will be considerable, resulting in richly interconnected organizations with decision making based on the analysis and exploitation of “big” data and intensified, global competition among firms. People will be capable of buying goods and obtaining services from anywhere in the world using the Internet, and exploiting the unlimited, additional benefits that will open through the widespread usage of AI inventions. The paper concludes that significant competitive advantages will continue to accrue to those utilizing the Internet widely and willing to take entrepreneurial risks in order to turn innovative products/services into worldwide commercial success stories. The greatest challenge facing societies and firms would be utilizing the benefits of availing AI technologies, providing vast opportunities for both new products/services and immense productivity improvements while avoiding the dangers and disadvantages in terms of increased unemployment and greater wealth inequalities.     

新时期高校文科学报工作者的文化使命

在国家文化体制改革背景下,高校文科学报也将是改革建设的重点,学报编辑队伍的使命是继续坚持创造和发掘、记录和传播优秀的科学文化研究成果,将其转化并融入于科学文化传播的河流中,参与科学文化交流与创新。学报编辑人员承担着着文化科学研究与创新、学术与科研文化传播、为社会文化科学研究工作者服务的文化使命,提升自身的专业化和学术化水平,创办有价值的高校文科学报。     

党取得巨大成就的原因简析——纪念中国共产党成立90年的伟大历程

笔者认为中国共产党90年的伟大历程可以概括为:坚持一个宗旨(全心全意为人民服务),实现两次革命(新民主主义革命、社会主义革命),完成三件大事(革命、改革、建设),完善四大理论(毛泽东思想、邓小平理论、“三个代表”重要思想、科学发展观),逐步实现五大变化(由封闭半封闭到开放、由农业国向工业国的转变、由计划经济向市场经济的转变、由人治社会向法治社会的转变、由贫穷——小康——富裕的转变).党取得巨大成就的原因是:党把全心全意为人民服务作为党的全部价值所在;坚持马克思主义中国化是党领导各项事业不断胜利的关键所在;逐步实现共同富裕是党义不容辞的责任所在.     

Implications of biased reporting: conservative and liberal accounting policies in oligopolies

We examine the effects of biased (conservative or liberal) reporting on product market competition. Cournot duopolists observe either firm-specific or industry-wide shocks and provide noisy reports subject to an exogenous mandated bias attributed to public policy. Given neutral prior beliefs, either a conservative bias or a liberal bias enhances overall reporting-system informativeness as measured by the reduction of uncertainty. Consistent with previously established effects in the information sharing literature regarding increases in informativeness, we show that expected industry profits and expected consumer surplus may gain or lose from bias, depending on whether the shocks are firm-specific or industry-wide and the degree of product competition. Expected social welfare, however, always increases in bias, irrespective of the source of uncertainty and product substitutability or complementarity. We next consider a setting where firms self-select whether to bias reports and characterize regions of potential conflict with a public policy that maximizes expected social welfare. Further results on the differential effects of conservative or liberal bias follow from relaxing the assumption of neutral prior beliefs.     

Making rights from what’s left of Darwinism

The legal, political, and social meaning of the work of Charles Darwin has been claimed as resident to conservative and liberal homes alike. Peter Singer's unique admixture of personal liberal politics and what may look to be an extremely conservative philosophy of nature expose some over-simplicity in traditional ‘right’ and ‘left’ categories. In “Recovering the Left from Darwin in the 21st Century”, Steve Fuller provides us with insightful historical and sociological contexts for Singer's challenges. In this article, Kirk Junker takes one aspect of the trajectory ‘the notion of natural rights’ and examines their social construction, linguistic maintenance, and legal ramifications.     

Is there a link between politics and stock returns? A literature survey

This survey starts by reviewing the literature investigating whether political connectedness of companies creates wealth for their shareholders. It then moves on to examine whether there is an association between the orientation of the political executive or the phase of the electoral cycle with movements of the stock market index. The price impact of politically-relevant events, such as wars, terrorist attacks, revolutions, coups or issuance of communications by those in positions of power is also discussed. The review closes with an examination of the impact of political uncertainty on stock markets and with a reflection on the direction of causality.     

FDI稳定性下降与宏观经济风险防范

随着全球FDI投资规模、产业整合、投资领域、融资结构等方面的深刻变迁,FDI的稳定性明显降低,资金大规模进出东道国的风险明显提高,新兴市场经济体遭受冲击的风险尤甚。我国经过连续30年引进外资,FDI对缓解国内资金短缺的作用已经基本消失,其波动性增大的负面影响则逐渐显现。重新审视FDI政策,完善统计体系,优化FDI结构,提高对外开放效率是我国迫切需要解决的问题。     

Hedge fund politics and portfolios

Consistent with the well-documented relation between political orientation and psychological traits, hedge funds’ political orientations are related to their portfolio decisions. Relative to politically conservative hedge funds, politically liberal hedge funds exhibit a preference for smaller stocks, less mature companies, volatile stocks, unprofitable companies, non-dividend paying companies, and lottery-type securities. Politically liberal hedge funds are also more likely to enter new positions or fully exit existing positions, and make larger adjustments to their U.S. equity market exposure. Our results suggest that psychological characteristics can influence the portfolio decisions of even those at the very top of the financial sophistication ladder.     

Scope of Auditors' Liability,Audit Quality,and Capital Investment

One of the fundamental issues in the discussion of auditors' liability is to whom auditors should be held liable for ordinary negligence under common law. Three judicial viewpoints prevail: the restrictive privity approach, the more liberal Restatement approach, and the most liberal foreseeability approach. To compare these three approaches from an efficiency perspective, this paper develops a model that features an owner-managed firm, an independent auditor, a continuum of unrelated lenders, and an impartial court. Double effort-incentive problems appear for the firm and the auditor. The firm has an additional incentive problem due to the sequential nature of its borrowing. This paper shows that the effort-incentive problem and the sequential borrowing problem of the firm render unambiguous improvements in audit effort/quality, capital investment, and social welfare as the judicial approach governing the scope of auditors' liability becomes more conservative.     

工业革命、金融革命与系统性风险治理

本文以历史上三次工业革命为切入点,探讨工业革命、金融革命与系统性风险治理间的关系。在工业革命演进过程中,先进技术创新应用、经济结构转变和社会环境变迁,推动了金融业演进发展和升级;反过来,资本的快速积累和有效融通对科技进步转化为工业革命不可或缺,以现代商业银行、现代投资银行和创业投资体系为特征的三次金融革命分别是三次工业革命的重要推动力量。但如果制度规则建设和监管滞后,金融发展失序也会导致系统性风险逐步累积,引发金融危机,反过来催生重大金融体制或监管制度变革。当前第四次工业革命已拉开序幕,金融科技引领的金融业集成创新有望成为第四次金融革命的突出特征。我国是全球金融科技发展领先的国家之一,应统筹发展与安全,在金融科技带动下发挥好银行体系、资本市场、创投体系和金融科技企业服务实体经济创新发展的合力,同时做好风险防范,引导从业机构在服务实体经济和遵从审慎监管的前提下守正创新,防止资本无序扩张,牢牢守住不发生系统性风险的底线。     

The Emergence and Persistence of the Anglo-Saxon and German Financial Systems

We use a moral hazard model to compare monitored (nontraded)bank loans and traded (nonmonitored) bonds as sources of externalfunds for industry. We contrast the theoretical conditions thatfavor each system with the historical conditions prevailingwhen these financial systems evolved during the British andGerman industrial revolutions. To study persistence, we consideran entry model where financiers take the industrial structureas given when they lend and firms take the financial systemas given when they borrow. We show multiple equilibria can exist,compare equilibria in welfare terms, and discuss their robustnessto coordination between lenders and borrowers.