国家审计免疫系统的理论意义和现实思考

国家审计是国家经济社会运行的“免疫系统”的论点,是对国家审计本质、职能定位认识的一个新发展,是适应当前形势发展要求的一个理论创新,对于进一步明确审计的职能定位,充分发挥现代审计的功能,推动审计工作的科学发展具有重要意义,也为开展审计学术理论研究开辟了一个新的空间。这一理论的确立,进一步拓展了审计工作外延,并赋予了国家审计新的内涵。但是“免疫系统”的论点也面临着严峻的现实考验,为了使国家审计能够真正发挥“免疫系统”的功能和作用,我们也要考虑相应措施。     

Why Should the Boss Own the Assets?

In the context of an employment relationship, I present an argument suggesting that it is more efficient for the boss to own the productive assets. The idea is that a conflict between productivity and depreciation is internalized if the player deciding what an asset is used for also has residual claims. An empirical test finds evidence consistent with this. By asking whether the boss should own the assets, the paper reverses the reasoning from the literature in which it is argued that the owner has power and thus is the boss.     

Why firms adopt and discontinue new-issue dividend reinvestment plans

We examine several arguments—past performance, capital structure adjustment, and broadening the ownership base—involving why firms adopt and discontinue new-issue dividend reinvestment plans (DRPs). We test hypotheses for each argument by analyzing financial characteristics for firms adopting and discontinuing new-issue DRPs compared with matching non-DRP firms. The evidence provides some support for the past performance argument but none for the capital structure adjustment argument. Limited support also exists for the broadening the shareholder base argument. Overall, the results support the notion that firms needing funds initiate new-issue DRPs, and then discontinue them when the need for external funding diminishes. The authors wish to thank two anonymous referees and Joachim Zietz, the editor, for many constructive suggestions for the improvement of the paper. The authors take responsibility for any remaining errors.     

The success and future of gender-specific fundraising propositions

Men and women use language very differently in conversation. They also use different types of information, presented in different ways, to make decisions. And yet in a targeted appeal for support, which is essentially a proposition providing information and seeking a positive decision, no account is taken by charities of the gender of the recipient. This paper argues that all appeals will, in the matter of a few years, be written in gender-specific style, and cites focus-group research and a recent direct mail test (producing an 85 per cent uplift in response), as well as extensive literature on the use of language by the sexes, to support this argument.     

Pay for Talk: How the Use of Shareholder‐Value Language Affects CEO Compensation

The language that signals conformity to a prevailing norm can contribute to the appearance of managerial competency and organizational legitimacy. We argue that top corporate managers’ use of language that is congruent with a prevailing norm leads the boards of directors to evaluate the managers more favourably and to grant a higher level of compensation. We test this argument by analysing the letters to shareholders from 334 US firms and examine the CEOs’ expression of the shareholder value principle, which is a prevailing model of corporate governance in the USA. We found that the use of shareholder‐value language is significantly related to a higher level of CEO compensation and that the effect of shareholder‐value language is greater when shareholder activism is stronger.     

The need for documenting validation transactions: a qualitative component of the testing validation process

Validation is an argument for the interpretation of test scores. It is often the case that the validators do not formally consider how the various interactions that take place during the process of test item development, for example with the subject-matter experts (SMEs), may be influencing the results obtained. . . Every effort should be undertaken to more fully understand the impact the validator has on the validation process through the documentation of qualitative evidence regarding how the transactions between and among the validators and SMEs influence the data collection effort upon which interpretations of test scores are made.     

Witty invention or dubious fad? Using argument mapping to examine the contours of management fashion

This paper examines management fashion discourse based on the premise that management fashions are not neutral, but problematic. It grounds this premise on Abrahamson and Fairchild's (1999) observation that attributes the upswings of management fashion discourse to “emotionally charged, enthusiastic and unreasoned discourse”. Adopting this critical perspective, the paper conducts a careful analysis of faddish discourse in an attempt to understand the discursive ailments that would justify ascribing a diagnosis of “unreasoned” to this discourse. To achieve this goal, the paper employs the technique of argument mapping to examine and compare the structures of early discourse surrounding: (1) Business Process Reengineering (BPR) – typically now considered a fad; (2) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) – an enduring, non-faddish IS discourse; and (3) Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) – a more recent discourse that is evaluated based on insights derived from comparisons of BPR and ERP. Findings from the resultant argument maps show conspicuous differences between BPR and ERP argumentation, which suggests an association between early argument structure and the faddish trajectory of discourse. Similarly, insights derived from ERP and BPR argument comparisons suggest that SOA is more likely to follow the faddish course of its BPR predecessor rather than the enduring track of ERP.     

Decision Comprehensiveness and Corporate Entrepreneurship: The Moderating Role of Managerial Uncertainty Preferences and Environmental Dynamism

Although comprehensiveness is considered among the most salient and enduring strategic decision-making characteristics in organizations, its influence on firm behaviour has remained elusive. As a first step, our study builds and tests a model that specifies the influence of comprehensiveness on the firm's pursuit of corporate entrepreneurship. Our core argument is that while comprehensiveness helps decision-makers gain the knowledge needed to escape the ignorance and overcome doubt associated with this pursuit, this beneficial influence is conditional upon managerial uncertainty preferences, together with the level of dynamism in the external environment. Findings from a large sample study of CEOs from 349 SMEs provide general support for this argument and associated hypotheses.     

A new editorial order in entrepreneurship & regional development

The aim of this paper is to contribute to international entrepreneurship theory by adopting a foreign market perspective when examining the links between network development and knowledge creation. Network development is argued to enhance the understanding of regional market structures and make firms more inclined ? and better able ? to create knowledge in foreign market business relationships (business relationships represent focal points in networks). The basis of this argument is that networks provide a multitude of opportunities for the exploitation of previously unexploited combinations of knowledge. Data were gathered from surveys conducted with an effective random sample of 188 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. A LISREL-based analysis was performed to test the three hypotheses deduced from theory. Findings showed that network development has a direct positive impact on knowledge creation and that knowledge combination functions as a mediating construct between network development and knowledge creation.     

Narrating the Power of Non‐Standard Employment: The Case of the Israeli Public Sector*

abstract Applying a critical discourse analysis approach, this study shows how the argument equating non‐standard employment (NSE) with organizational efficiency gains dominance over the contesting argument that views NSE as reducing organizational efficiency. We interviewed 24 senior‐level HR managers in the Israeli public sector, where NSE is used extensively, in order to shed light on the discursive order and the power struggle between these contesting arguments. Findings point to two story‐lines that helped discredit the argument in which NSE reduces organizational efficiency: (1) a statement of loyalty to organizational efficiency, accompanied by a gesture of concern for employees in non‐standard arrangements; and (2) subordinating an implied preference for eliminating NSE to organizational constraints.     

Persuasion and industrial relations: a case of argument in a joint consultative committee

As persuasion and argument are central to the processes of industrial relations this article makes a plea for a ‘rhetorical turn’ within industrial relations. Using Toulmin’s model of argument, it highlights the utility of such an approach through analysis of the argumentative nature of discussion within a JCC.     

Do Firms Learn from Alliance Terminations? An Empirical Examination

In this paper, drawing from the learning from failure perspective, we argue that firms that have experienced prior terminations are less likely to have their future alliance terminated. Our key argument is that prior terminations will enable firms to design better alliances and adopt more appropriate alliance management strategies to avoid future terminations. We also suggest a more nuanced view of learning by hypothesizing that termination experience will mediate the relationship between alliance formation experience and likelihood of termination. We used the case–control methodology to select a sample of 198 alliances (consisting of 99 terminations and an equal number of surviving alliances) from the global biotechnology industry, and deployed logistic regression analysis to test the hypotheses in a multivariate setting. Our analysis strongly supports both hypotheses.     

Sunk Costs, Contestability, and the Latent Contract Market

The idea that an industry with sunk costs may be contestable even in the absence of long-term contracts has received little attention informal economic theory yet is sometimes popular among practitioners. This paper formally illustrates the argument. In an infinitely repeated game, there exists a class of contestable outcomes in which the monopolist sells only on the spot market and charges low prices along the equilibrium path to prevent customers from resorting to long-term contracts. The crucial test for contestability is the level of transaction costs in the latent contract market.     

An empirical study of depositor sensitivity to bank risk

Using a cross-sectional data set on U.S. commercial banks, the argument that during the mid 1980s to early 1990s depositors were insensitive to bank risk is empirically examined. Bank risk is measured by the predicted probability of bank failure as a function of contributing factors. The natural log of bank deposits is then regressed on bank risk and other control variables. The coefficient on bank risk in this equation measures the sensitivity of deposits to bank risk. A close examination of the estimated coefficient on bank risk offers little support for the argument that depositors were insensitive to bank risk.     

Did Mises Err? Was He a Utilitarian?

A bstract .   Walter Block's critique of my paper fails to address the main argument: that Ludwig von Mises's support for laissez faire comes from a comparison of the systems recommended by the ideologies of socialism, interventionism, and liberalism. Mises compares these systems according to the criterion of their capacity to achieve the goal of satisfying material wants. This goal is either explicit or implicit in the arguments made by those who subscribe to the above ideologies. He uses value-free economic reasoning to determine whether the systems recommended by the three ideologies will achieve the goal. In this reply, I reaffirm the argument in the face of Block's critique. In addition, I address two other arguments. The first is the implicit argument in Murray Rothbard and in Block that Mises erred because he failed to take account of all the goals that policy advocates might have in recommending a policy. I argue that he did not err. The second is that Mises is a utilitarian, an argument also advanced by Leland Yeager. I argue not only that Mises was not but also that he repudiated the idea that his support for laissez faire was based on utilitarian welfare principles. The reply also answers some of Block's more specific criticisms of my paper.     

Selection institutions and war aims

We explore how the sizes of the winning coalition and selectorate influence the war aims of states. Leaders who answer to a small winning coalition are more likely to seek territorial gain as a way to increase state resources. Nonterritorial war aims produce a commitment problem in that after the war the defeated state may not comply with the victor's demands. States with large winning coalitions are more willing to continue the war to remove the enemy leader as a solution to this commitment problem. We test our hypotheses against the Militarized Interstate Dispute data set, and we find some support for our argument. Received: June 2004, Accepted: April 2005, Correspondence to: James D. Morrow     

A probability inequality for ranges and its application to maximum range test procedures

Summary It is proved that for any fixed argument the sequence (P _k) of the distribution functions of the ranges ofk i.i.d. univariate random variables is log-concave if the random variables have a log-concave density. If the support of the distribution is an infinite interval and the density is monotonous then the theorem holds also with “log-convex” instead of “log-concave”. The resulting inequalities can be used by a quick algorithm for closed maximum range test procedures for all pairwise comparisons (Royen 1988, 1989a, 1989b). Under the above assumptions the application of this algorithm can be extended e.g. to pairwise comparisons of variances.     

The <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis><Subscript>ϕ</Subscript>-Divergence Statistic for Categorical Data Problems

In this work a new family of statistics based on K _ϕ -divergence (Burbea and Rao (1982) On the convexity of divergence measures based on entropy function. IEEE Trans Inf Theory 28, 489–495) are obtained by either replacing both distributions involved in the argument by their samples estimates or replacing one distribution and considering the other as given. Asymptotic distributions of these statistics are obtained and test for goodness-of-fit and for homogeneity with a known distribution, can be constructed on the basis of these results     

Why Are Royalty Rates Higher in Service-type Franchises?

Royalty payments from a franchisee to a franchisor serve as incentive for the franchisor to provide appropriate levels of quality and brand, name investment. However, since they also distort the service provided by the franchisee, we should expect relatively lower royalty rates in franchises that are primarily service-oriented. Casual examination of royalty rates across product-oriented and service-oriented franchises shows that the opposite is true, with service-type franchises enjoying higher royalty rates. We resolve this apparent puzzle. The basic argument we put forth is that in product-type franchises, a franchisor can charge a wholesale price on goods transferred to the franchisee, thus using an alternative instrument that also serves as an incentive for the franchisor. Moreover, in general, a franchisor will use both wholesale price and royalty to minimize distortions in retail price and service at the retail level. We then test the predictions of our model on different industries and find confirmation for the same.     

Influence of institutional investors' participation on flipping activity of Malaysian IPOs

This paper examines the influence of institutional investors’ participation on flipping activity of Malaysian IPOs. Measured as the percentage of trading volume on the first trading day against the total number of shares offered, flipping is the quickest way to gain huge profits from IPOs. However, excessive flipping activity has significant potential to create artificial downward pressure on the price of IPOs. One way to reduce such an adverse effect is by strategically allocating a larger proportion of new shares to institutional investors. This is because institutional investors are normally assumed to be long-term investors. As such, they are less likely to flip their allocated IPOs in the immediate aftermarket. The long-term investment argument is consistent with institutional investors’ preference for a steady income stream in the form of dividends. Drawing upon this argument, the greater participation of institutional investors during an IPO is expected to be an effective strategy to control aggressive flipping activity. The Malaysian IPO market offers an excellent opportunity to examine this hypothesis because data regarding the allocation of new shares to institutional investors can be traced conveniently through a type of IPO referred to as “private placement”. Based upon an examination of 248 IPOs listed on Bursa Malaysia between January 2000 and December 2012, this study finds a negative relationship between institutional investors’ participation and flipping activity. This result lends strong support to the argument concerning the effectiveness of institutional investors’ participation in controlling flipping activity in the Malaysian IPO market.