Human Resource Management in the Building Industry： International Comparison

This paper summarizes the results of the international questionnaire survey which took place at the start of 2013 in order to examine, judge, and compare the implemented concept and procedures of human resource management in the questioned building companies operating in the Visegrad Four countries （the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic） and the Federal Republic of Germany, and proposes an optimal approach to human resource management in the context of the current and expected economic development. The questionnaire survey was based on the assumption that effective human resource management is a condition of the successful function of each building company and that human resource management is that area of management which distinguishes the successful building companies from the unsuccessful ones. In total, 202 companies from the Czech Republic, 105 companies from Hungary, 100 companies from Poland, 102 companies from the Slovak Republic, and 99 companies from the Federal Republic of Germany took part in the questionnaire survey. The results of the questionnaire survey showed that among the building companies questioned in individual countries, there was no substantial difference in the overall concept and in the partial procedures of human resource management. The implemented concept and procedures in the questioned building companies show significant merits and surprising shortcomings, whereas it is difficult to prove an unequivocal connection between the efficiency of human resource management and the success of building companies. This relationship is determined by a series of other political, economic, legal, social, cultural, technical, demographic, and natural effects which are not related to the efficiency of human resource management or to the performance of the workforce of building companies.     

Board independence, ownership structure, audit quality and income smoothing activities： A study on Malaysian market

The 1997 economic crisis faced by many East Asian economies has generated a substantial amount of debate largely focused on issues such as the roles and functions of good corporate governance （CG）. Lack of transparency has been singled out as the major culprit of the crisis and it has been alleged to cause management to indulge themselves in unhealthy activities such as income smoothing （IS） act. The paper extends Nasuhiyah, Hian, Sob and WEI （1994） by incorporating contextual variables that proxy for CG, ownership structure and audit quality. The empirical analysis is conducted on a sample of Bursa Malaysia listed companies for a period between 1991 and 2000. The main intention of taking this time span is to observe to what extend has previous business operations inculcated the feature of CG in the running of their companies＇ activities despite not being obligatory for them to uphold. The results showed that the existence of non-executive directors and the presence of brand name auditors to be significant in hindering the management from indulging in IS. The study opens the way for a richer understanding of the links among CG, ownership structure, audit quality and IS in Malaysia.     

Impact of mergers on the corporate performance of acquirer and target companies in India

Mergers and acquisitions become the major force in the changing environment. The policy of liberalization, decontrol and globalization of the economy has exposed the corporate sector to domestic and global competition. It is true that there is little scope for companies to learn from their past experience. Therefore, to determine the success of a merger, it is to be ascertained if there is financial gain from mergers. It is very important to study the liquidity performance of those companies to test whether those companies have sufficient liquid assets to meet its current obligations. The present study is limited to a sample of companies which underwent merger in the same industry during the period of 2002-2005 listed in one of the Indian stock exchange namely Bombay Stock Exchange. It is proposed to compare the liquidity performance of the thirteen sample acquirer and target companies before and after the period of mergers by using ratio analysis and t-test during the study period of three years. The study found that the shareholders of the acquirer companies increased their liquidity performance after the merger event.     

On FASB Standard Setting:The Role of Funding Structure and Voting Rule

This study develops and tests hypotheses about organizational characteristics of the Financial Accounting Standards Board(FASB)and captures the effects of some recent changes on the operations of the Board in standard setting.I establish a methodology to quantify the complex work of the FASB through factor analysis and condense various proxies into three meaningful performance metrics:thoroughness,timeliness,and consensus.These performance measures are used as dependent variables in a regression analysis to capture how the work of the FASB varies with respect to funding and voting changes.I find evidence that a change in FASB funding from private donations to mandatory accounting support fees is associated with an improvement in Board consensus but no significant change in thoroughness or timeliness.I also find the change in voting rules from supermajority to simple majority is associated with improvements in timeliness but a decline in thoroughness and consensus.Overall,the results suggest that the work of the FASB is multidimensional and that the improvement of one area may come at the cost of another.     

The Reliability of Impairment Tests： The Case of Vessels

For a shipping company, the vessel is the most valuable and important asset. In most cases, the value of the vessel is the bigger part of total assets. Under International Accounting Standards （IAS） and also United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles （US GAAP） （IAS 36 and Statement of Financial Accounting Standards （SFAS） 144 respectively）, entities are required to conduct impairment tests where there is an indication of impairment of an asset. It is of high importance that the assumptions and the methodology of these tests be right, in order for the results of these tests to be valid. Always, there is the risk that the accountant manipulates the test in order to avoid any impairment losses. Our purpose is to examine the way that the results from these tests are related with market values. Also, we aim to examine under what test assumptions the results from these tests are close enough to market values of vessels.     

英文摘要

Is There Any Auditor＇s Trust to the Clients in Audit Zou Jing Xia Qing Zhou Sheng （Zhongnan University of Economics and Law; Military Economics Academy,Wuhan, Hubei 430073） Abstract： Professional skepticism is an essential important accomplishment for the auditor who is engaged in auditing work. Is there any auditor＇s trust to the clients in the the field of audit which is in contrast to the Professional skepticism？ Using data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2011, this paper explor the relation between the intensity index of trust and the audit fees, and then explains whether there is auditor＇s trust to the clients in the auditing activities. On the whole,the result of study reveals that there is a significant negative correlation between the auditor＇s index of rational trust and the audit fees, but there is no significant positive association between the auditor＇s index of individual trust and the audit fees.Thus it can be thought that, there exists auditor＇s trust to the clients stemming from the rationality in the auditing activities, but there is no evidence showing that the auditor has individual turst to the clients in the audit because of the long familarity with the clients. Keywords： Auditor Trust Audit fees     

Evaluating the Performance of Investment Funds in Turkey

It is important to determine the most appropriate levels of risk and return for small investors. For that purpose, the investment funds are very important tools to create a portfolio for small investors, to deploy the potential risks in optimal proportions, and to direct investors. In this study, the performance of 83 pieces of investment funds will be evaluated which are treated in Turkey dates from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2012 with performance evaluation methods such as Sharpe, Modigliani （M2） that is based on the standard deviation, and Treynor, T2, Jensen that is based on systematic risk （beta）, and the highest and lowest performance investment funds will be presented. The aim of the study is to examine the success of the investment fund managers whether they could estimate the course of the market well or not regarding time period. The empirical results show that the investors who invest on the funds that have negative risk premium by investing in the investment funds getting under the risk cannot get more excess return than getting the return from the risk-free interest rate as treasury bills. The result implies that it could be said that the systematic and total risks of all investment funds are low and they are not sensitive to the developments in the market, and thus, regarding funds could be called as conservative funds.     

Personnel Management in the Slovak Building Industry： Analysis of Small,Medium-Sized,and Big Building Companies

This paper summarizes the results of the authors＇ research conducted in November 2013 with the aim to analyze the organization and standards of the personnel management in the Slovak building industry. The research was based on the presumption that optimal mastering of the personnel management is a precondition of the success of each building company that wishes to be a continuously prosperous, competitive, and respected economic and social entity. Altogether, 76 small （less than 50 employees）, 77 medium-sized （50-249 employees）, and 21 big （250 and more employees） building companies operating in the territory of the Slovak Republic took part in the research. The results of the research showed that the concept of the personnel management in big building companies （in particular in comparison to most small companies but some medium-sized companies） was more strategic and systematic which is natural given the high numbers of employees of various professions who carry out manifold building works in a huge set of working conditions. However, from the point of view of the current economic development, all building companies have to develop their adaptability to the building market and their capability to master various building works. It is just the personnel management that is used to make it all up provided it is implemented efficiently in a purposeful way in order to keep the stable operation of the building company and satisfaction of various needs of stakeholders including but not limited to employees and clients.     

University-Business Cooperation in Education： Real and Perceived Performances

The purpose of this paper is to describe and demonstrate the validity of a methodology to distinguish, in the performances of high education institutions （HEIs）, real from perceived performances. The extension of accountability to the evaluation of educational programs involves significant topics concerning the gap between perceived and real performances. It means that, since many actors such as teachers, students, and external stakeholders are involved in the process, the research on methodologies to distinguish subjective from objective parameters is still on the floor. Debate about performance evaluation in this collaboration is still in progress particularly as it concerns the proposal of several parameters and indexes to quantify the topic and reduce the subjectivism in the assessment and the gap between real and perceived performances. After describing and discussing an evaluation model based on three interdependent typologies of indexes, this will be tested in two Tempus projects having the purpose of activating Ph.D. and masters courses. The results encourage deepening researches in this direction and disseminating this methodology and extending and enriching the validation process.     

Integration of strategy, budgetary management and internal control system： A case of Sinochem Corporation

How budgetary management as a tool for planning and controlling of business operations is aligned with strategy and internal control system may not be problematic to American firms but is the most challengeable to large corporations in China. The case of Sinochem Corporation demonstrates the ways that budgetary management is linked with 3-year strategic planning at corporate level via yearly operating plans at business levels, and that budgets are integrated with internal control system into a device of task control to monitor whether business operations are on the track toward strategy. It is learned from the case that Chinese corporations have initiated different practices than American firms in solving the same issues.     

Value-relevance of accounting numbers for valuation

Recent empirical work suggested that the ability of accounting numbers to explain the relationship between accounting numbers and stock prices has deteriorated over the past four decades. The findings of this study suggest that the accounting earnings and book value are capturing most of the information that is relevant to assess the values of firms. At the same time, it also suggests that earnings and book value as well as non-accounting beta are more valued during the financial crisis as compared to after the financial crisis. Overall, the accounting estimate of the value of the firm is not deviating from the markets＇ estimate, which suggests that accounting numbers play an important role in the valuation of firms in Malaysia.     

Short-Term Financing of Economic Order Quantity （EOQ） Inventory Model With Probabilistic Quality

In this paper, the classical economic order quantity （EOQ） inventory model assumption that all items of a certain product received from a supplier are of perfect quality is relaxed. Another basic assumption that the payment for the items is made at the beginning of the inventory cycle when they are received is also eased. We consider an inventory situation where items received from the supplier are of two types of quality, perfect and imperfect, and a short deferral in payment is allowed. The split between perfect and imperfect quality items is assumed to follow a known probability distribution. Both qualities of items have continuous demands, and items of imperfect quality are sold at a discount. A mathematical model is developed using the net present value of all cash flows involved in the inventory cycle. A numerical method for obtaining the optimal order quantity is presented, and the impact of the short-term financing is analyzed. An example is presented to validate the equations and illustrate the results.     

Global Financial Crisis： Systemic Failure and the Underlying Knowledge Gap

Recently, global financial crisis or meltdown rocked the international financial market. This havoc was the result of the reckless use of financial derivatives that received spontaneous patronization from the financial whiz, but it is strange to discover that those proponents of market economy embarked on policy that was purely Keynesian in principle. The episode started in August 2007 with the collapse of subprime mortgage market and reached its climax during August 2008. Central banks in many countries of the western world intervened in the market to pump additional fund to give buoyancy in the credit market. The crisis encapsulated with the queer idea of financial instruments and multiple origins related to subprime mortgage left its trail in both developed and developing countries. Thus, an elaborate analysis of the causal link among various innovative instruments highlighting a mismatch between academic doctrine and real-life perspective and the inadequacy of the institutional arrangements supposed to tame the volatility of the market may be a useful guide to financial analysts and policy planners. The purpose of this paper is to highlight systemic gaps in the meltdown and redefine the contour of macroeconomics most appropriate to weather such catastrophe in the future.     

The effect of earnings forecast precision on firm value and insider trading under voluntary disclosure in Taiwan

Taiwan changed its earnings forecast policy from mandatory to voluntary disclosure in 2005. In this study, the inferences of voluntary earnings forecast are examined based on forecasts issued by listed firms. This study suspects that insiders have a temptation to strategically manipulate financial forecast information to influence markets and thus receive extra rents. Under the new earnings forecast disclosure policy, the number of disclosing firm decreases but the precision of earnings forecast increases. The empirical result from dynamic panel data evidences the forecast error of voluntary disclosure may negatively impact firm values. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between insiders＇ trading profit and manipulation of earnings forecasts. As volatility in insider manipulation increases, it is difficult for the investors to predict the real intention of insiders, and insiders may achieve greater benefits from trading. This study also observes that many listed companies hold investor conferences to provide earnings guidance in Taiwan. The reason may be that investor conference is more flexible and has less forecast error cost than the formal financial forecast. This study provides important insights into earnings forecast policy in emerging markets. The competent authority should improve corporate governance and develop monitoring functions to abate forecast manipulation.     

Tunneling, overlapping owner and investor protection： Evidence from merger and acquisition in Asia

Tunneling is to describe transfer resource out of the firm for benefit of their controlling shareholders. Better legal protection and stronger social norms improve minority shareholders＇ protection from expropriation. They consequently reduce the private benefits of controlling shareholders （La Porta, 1999）. This study aims to investigate tunneling in the context merger and acquisition （M＆A） and to examine whether tunneling occurs only in emerging markets with poor law enforcement or whether it also occurs in developed countries. This study documents that managers are more likely to overpay target in merger and acquisition with high overlapped owner which have stakes in bidder and target firm. That overpayment, a transfer of wealth from owners of bidder＇s firm to overlapping owners, is a type of tunneling. This study concludes that tunneling occurs in nations not only with low investor protection, but also with high investor protection.     

Accounting Education Changes in USA and Its Implications to PRC

The internationalization of accounting education in PRC as one of the most important parts of Chinese accounting internationalization has been Americanized to some extent since 1980s. As the representative of the world＇s most advanced education system, the USA accounting education is worth learning, but had been suffering from a crisis in the past 20 years. To better understand this crisis and draw some lessons from it, we have to review the 100-year history of the US＇ accounting education, identify key initiatives taken to struggle out, and conclude that this accounting education crisis in USA is due to its congenital professional examination orientation and about 40 years of deviation of accounting education from accounting practice. This paper is ended with some policy recommendations on the future development of accounting education in PRC including establishing university board of trustees and re-engineering accounting programs.     

A Modeling Framework Based on Enterprises Cluster for Virtual Enterprise

As a new type of organization form, virtual enterprise is believed to have many theoretical advantages, but these advantages have not been fully shown in practice yet. The paper intends to analyze the causes and to propose ideas to solve the problem. Starting from the characteristics of virtual enterprise, the paper analyzes the factors hindering the practice of the virtual enterprises, evaluates the lack of existing models, and then comes to the conclusion that a unified, simplified model is more conducive to the realization of virtual enterprise according to the actual situation. Learning from the mechanism of enterprises cluster, the paper suggests a modeling framework for the new idea of virtual enterprise which is effective in operation. The main contributions of this modeling include： constitute a standardized operating platform to overcome the prime obstacle from the diversity of the partners for the practice of virtual enterprise; and set up a collaboration layer as the buffer mechanism between the partners and the database.     

Motivations and performance of public to private transactions： An international study

This article deals with the motivations and the different sources of value from public to private transactions in Europe, USA and Asia from 2000 to 2007. We determine eight main motivations （tax savings, incentive realignment, control, free cash flow, growth of prospects, transaction costs, takeover defence and undervaluation）. Then, we evaluate the shareholder wealth by measuring the offered premiums and the CAAR （cumulative average abnormal return）. Finally, we analyse the impact of public to private to the wealth shareholder. The main sources for firms from going private are incentive realignment, free cash flow （mostly for Asia）, the economy of cost transaction and undervaluation. Furthermore, taxation benefit is a source of wealth effects for Asia and family blockholder （for the control hypothesis） is significant for Europe. Premiums and CAAR are the most important for the USA and Asia. The main observation that we have made is that Asia gets the same behavior as the USA.     

Pricing factors in capital market and investment strategy： Evidence from Chinese listed companies

This paper explores the performances of some frequently used asset pricing factors and their investment implications in Chinese stock market. It is noted that CAPM model can hardly be applied to Chinese market as portfolios based on 13 values cannot generate high return against high risk. However, two factors （Size and B/M） from Fama-French model （1992） deliver better performances. Such findings indicate that models based on theoretical analysis are somewhat away from practice, and those risk factors from empirical studies are more applicable though not based on theories. Therefore, further researches are desirable concerning asset pricing factors.     

Financial Decision-Making： The Roles of Intuition,Heuristics, and Impulses

This paper will add to an evolving new paradigm for financial decision-making by exploring the important roles that intuition, heuristics, and impulses play as a bridge between how the conscious and unconscious can work together more effectively in making better decisions. Historically, the roles of financial/accounting theory and cognitive psychology have been extensively studied and documented in attempting to explain individual financial decision-making. More recently, neuroscience has made substantial contributions to learning how prospective financial decisions and outcomes affect brain activity and observed decision-making behavior. The evidence from neuroscience indicates that up to 90% of our decisions are initiated at the unconscious level, which is only beginning to be investigated in a systematic manner. Integrating these findings from multiple disciplines, including recent contributions from neuroscience, has many implications, not only with respect to personal and corporate financial decisions and how markets work, but also as an essential component in the tool box of the general decision maker.