Marketing implications of the expected role of physicians in family decisions concerning the institutionalization of the elderly

This study investigates the decision to place a loved one in a nursing home, looking at the interaction between adult children and the elderly, and at the role expected to be played by physicians. Younger respondents and those without previous experience with decisions concerning the admittance of a loved one in a nursing home do not see the physician as playing an important role, whereas the elderly and those with experience do. Differences in perceptions by these two groups are explored and the marketing implications for healthcare providers are discussed. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A contextual model of information systems

The social-engineering of accounting and information systems has not kept pace with the awesome advances on the teachnical side. Attempts, such as human information processing systems, have proven too narrow and research efforts now are called for which include both the psychology of the user and the program conditions of the task. This paper outlines a model which combines both personal decision style and organizational technology to derive four distinct information systems styles — concise, cursory, diffuse, and elaborate - each of which is suited to a particular technology. The central idea is that accounting and information systems should be designed to be congruent with the organizational context which they serve.     

Women's producer groups in rural KwaZulu: Limits and possibilities

Non‐agricultural ‘self‐help’ initiatives tend to be synonomous with handicraft activities. This paper addresses the potential of such initiatives in terms of income generation and developmental impact.

An outline of the context within which these initiatives may be understood is followed by an analysis of how rural producers respond to their conditions in an organizational sense. The paper's conclusions are derived from a discussion of the relative advantages and disadvantages of various organizational forms which includes the perceptions of the producers.     

Unwrapping a technology package: Burley,fertiliser, and hybrid maize in Malawi

Burley, fertiliser, and hybrid maize form a technology package designed to combine growth and the alleviation of poverty in Malawi. Adoption of the technology package was explored using hierarchical decision trees. The results showed that the three components formed a distinct package, although they were adopted neither simultaneously nor continuously. However, poorer smallholders, particularly women, generally lacked sufficient land and labour to adopt burley, and adoption of fertiliser and hybrid maize was constrained by lack of cash or credit. The scale of the technology package therefore meant that it was not adopted by smallholders cultivating 0,5 hectares or less, who constituted 48 per cent of smallholder households.     

Trade unionism and the employer in hotels and restaurants

This paper outlines George Bain's research findings on the employer's role in influencing white-collar union growth and development. It argues that the conclusions he draws from his research have validity in other industrial sectors and in hotels and restaurants specifically. Some parallels are drawn between the employment characteristics of private white-collar and hotel and restaurant employees paying particular attention to predominant management attitudes and arguing that these represent a major obstacle to future trade union growth. The suggestion is examined that trends in the ownership of the sector are influencing management policies and practices to become more supportive of trade unionism but it is concluded that these trends do not offer any substantial potential for unionisation.     

Discussion of “Implications of the integral approach and earnings management for alternative annual reporting periods”

The paper by Gunny, Jacob, and Jorgensen (Rev Account Stud, 2013) provides evidence on whether the earnings volatility induced by year-end adjusting entries results from the integral method of accounting or from purposeful earnings management. The authors find that the variance and negative skewness of annual fiscal-year earnings is greater than the corresponding attributes of alternative annual earnings ending in the first three quarters and interpret these findings as evidence consistent with earnings management rather than settling up annual earnings under the integral method of accounting. While it is difficult to assess the usefulness of their conclusion due to problematic assumptions inherent in the research design, Gunny et al. (2013) reinforce the importance of assessing earnings performance using rolling annual windows. Specifically, they find that the quality of earnings for the alternative annual earnings is greater than that of fiscal-year earnings, highlighting that financial statement users may benefit from using alternative annual earnings to assess current and future performance.