An empirical study of accountability: delegation of responsibility and external disclosure in some Swedish companies

There are increasing requirements for disclosure of future-oriented information, segmental reporting and information about financial risk management, i.e. information traditionally used internally in the management control process. The increasing influence of transnational corporations has contributed to pressure for wider accountability. An empirical study encompassing six transnational companies has been made. The research results suggest that information disclosed about goals for the group and outcome values for segments does not necessarily reflect how the company is managed. For industrial operations there appears to be a clear relationship between organization structure and goal parameters. None of these goal parameters and only certain outcome values for these parameters are disclosed which makes it difficult for external users to find out how the industrial operations are managed. For the financial activities there is no goal parameter used which is related to the goal for the group. Choice of organization structure and risk policy seems to influence disclosure. A lack of clear definitions and guidelines for futureoriented information makes difficult the comparison of what is disclosed with what it is required to disclose. The research results suggest the benefit of dealing with both management accounting and financial accounting when studying accountability.     

Security in a sea of insecurity: job security and intention to stay among service sector employees in Turkey

This article examines the association between job security and intention to stay for those who are employed in Turkey. There is a high level of unemployment in the country and many workers there are concerned about their job security. Job security refers to the objective dimensions of continuous contract, working full-time hours and paid and unpaid overtime. Job security also refers to the subjective dimension of perceived job security. We surveyed 407 employees in banking and related sectors' call centres, five-star hotel front-line staff and airline cabin crews. Results show that objective dimensions of job security are not associated with intention to stay. However, perceived job security is significantly and positively associated with intention to stay. We recommend that human resource managers focus on the perceived job security aspect of employment to keep valuable employees with the company.     

A New Approach to Gravity Anomaly Separation: Differential Markov Random Field (DMRF)

In this paper the authors introduce a novel approach to stochastic image processing, denoted as Differential Markov Random Field (DMRF), which has been applied to gravity anomaly separation problems. The advantages of the method are that it introduces only little distortion into the shape of the original image and that it is not affected significantly by factors such as the overlap power spectra of regional and residual fields. Testing of the proposed meth using synthetic examples gave excellent results.     

An optimization approach to strategic sourcing: A case study of the United States Air Force

The DoD annually procures billions of dollars worth of systems, supplies, and services in support of the national military strategy. Faced with budget cuts and other resource constraints, the DoD must transform its procurement process to ensure cost-effective sourcing of critical supplies and services. One aspect of current transformation in the DoD is the use of a strategic sourcing approach for the procurement of services at military installations. Using the Air Force's strategic sourcing process as our context, we developed an optimization model for selecting a set of proposals from among multiple offerors for services to be performed at multiple installations. The selection achieves the most favorable objective by balancing the confidence level in an offeror's past performance with the cost of services to the Air Force. The research findings, which are based on a realistic scenario, demonstrate improvements over the current sourcing process in both overall performance and cost.     

A model for estimating fish population and optimal fishing effort in lakes and rivers

We developed a model for estimating the fish population for various species in lakes and rivers. Our estimation focuses, in its first step, on fish species that breed outside the lake. Using the annual outside supply of fingerlings, natural survival rate and reported amounts of fish caught, we estimated fish stock. Given the estimated stock for fish bred outside the lake, we can evaluate the catch rate. Assuming equal catch rates for other species, and given the amount caught for each species, we are able to evaluate each species stock. Using the proposed technique, we evaluated various species stocks in the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) in Israel. Using our suggested technique for evaluating fish stock, we calculated the optimal effort of fishing needed for maximizing steady state profit of the fishers.     

TV viewing: application of a formal choice model

Choices of television programs is viewed as a process of deciding among a set of alternative goods with zero prices. A choice model can thus be based purely on individuals' preferences for various characteristics of a set of shows available, incorporating the option of not watching if all shows are too dissimilar to these desires. The shows are first grouped according to salient characteristics and a preferred value for each characteristic is estimated for each potential viewer. A perceived position of each show is similarly estimated and watching is shown to decline as similarity between preferred show and available alternatives declines. The choice model predicts show choice better than simpler models based on aggregate audience measures or on network loyalty, but the explanatory power is weak; some suggestions for improvement are made.     

New panel results on cointegration of international health expenditure and GDP

This article tests for existence of cointegration between health expenditure and GDP using data from 25 OECD countries for the period 19607ndash;1997. The empirical modelling is based on a heterogeneous bivariate vector error correction panel model that allows for trending data as well as intercepts and trends in the cointegrating relations. Univariate country-by-country and panel unit root tests generally fail to reject the null of a unit root in the health expenditure and GDP variables. Country-by-country results based on the Johansen multivariate likelihood-based inference indicate somewhat mixed results on country-specific cointegration with a rank of one found for 12 countries and a rank of zero for the remaining 13 countries. Application of a new panel test for cointegration rank with higher power than the individual tests indicates that health expenditure and GDP are cointegrated around linear trends.     

Determinants and Forecast of Price Level in India: a VAR Framework

The theoretical association of money supply and exchange rates with prices has been empirically established and shown to be dominant in explaining changes in price levels in India. However, post liberalisation, studies have shown price levels to be impacted by several other factors as also, weakened influence of the traditional factors established by theories. This study aims to find the determinants of price level for the period 1994–2008 using a Vector Autoregression model and test the predictive ability of the model. Our results show shorter and smaller impact of change in money supply and nominal effective exchange rate on price levels. Both money supply and nominal effective exchange rates are found to Granger-cause Consumer Price Index. But, impulse response functions show that the impact of shocks from money supply and nominal effective exchange rates on consumer prices peaks after two lags and is short-lived. Forecast error variance decomposition shows that these demand side factors contribute only 6 % of the forecast error variation in Consumer Price Index.