Accounting change in Norway

During the last twenty years, a change from a continental towards what can broadly be characterized as an Anglo-Saxon perspective of accounting has taken place in Norway.

This paper discusses whether the new Norwegian Accounting Act of 1998 and the accounting standards issued by the Norwegian standard-setting body represent a further focus on the Anglo-Saxon perspective. Important parts of Norwegian accounting regulation, particularly the Norwegian Conceptual Framework, are highlighted and compared with the positions of European (EC Accounting Directives) and international (IASB) accounting.

The findings indicate that the Anglo-Saxon perspective of accounting appears to be strengthened by the new Norwegian law. Even if the findings indicate that the IAS solutions are generally accepted under the new regulation, the flexibility of the regulation seems to indicate that other solutions are accepted as well. These ‘specific Norwegian’ accounting solutions may generally lead to balance sheets which are less prudent than the balance sheets set up under IAS.

If one accepts that a characteristic of Anglo-Saxon accounting is that it is, historically, generally less prudent than continental European accounting, it can indeed be concluded that Norwegian financial reporting has become more Anglo-Saxon than Anglo-Saxon countries in general. One factor seems to weaken this conclusion: Norway does not allow the revaluation of fixed assets.     

Stability,pseudo-stability,information and pseudo-information

This paper takes issue with Kuhner (1997) on four main points:

? the implications of accounting conventions, principles and valuation conventions;

? the role of Notes to the accounts;

? the relationship between distributable profits and liquidity;

? the significance of the efficient markets hypothesis.

Kuhner's desire to make (page 749) ‘published data on companies as informative as possible’ is strongly supported, but we differ on what this may mean in practice.     

Falling in love with brands: a dynamic analysis of the trajectories of brand love

This article presents a study designed to investigate and map the trajectories of brand love. Consumers described experiences related to the initiation and evolution of their relationships with their most loved brand. Participants were asked to graphically trace the course of their feelings toward their currently most loved brand and to recall the events that influenced those feelings. The paths toward brand love followed five distinct trajectories, labeled as “slow development,” “liking becomes love,” “love all the way,” “bumpy road,” and “turnabout.” The formative experiences shaping these trajectories often include individual, personal, and private experiences that are largely outside any marketer’s control.     

Forms of cross‐border mobility and social capital in multinational enterprises

This paper discusses how different forms of cross‐border employee mobility all contribute to establishing social ties across different units of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Despite the growing recognition of the significance of employees' cross‐unit social ties in MNEs for both individuals and the organisation, the mechanisms for creating such ties remain underspecified. We contribute to closing this gap by identifying the role that an array of forms of international mobility can play in promoting employees' (cross‐unit) social ties inside MNEs. We draw upon empirical accounts of the job‐related international mobility experiences of 72 high‐skilled employees in three leading MNEs in the mobile telecommunications sector. Guided by a framework that utilizes some of the key concepts of the debate on social ties and social capital, we discuss traditional expatriation, short‐term assignments, localised transfers and business travel in terms of the structure and strength of the cross‐unit ties they engender, as well as their accessibility. We find (1) that it is not only traditional long‐term assignments in the form of expatriation that enable individuals to create cross‐unit social ties; and, (2) that different forms of international mobility promote cross‐unit social ties in variable ways and to different extents.     

Family firms and financial performance: The cost of growing

This study examines the relationship between financial performance and family involvement for 523 listed and non-listed Colombian firms over 1996–2006. Using a detailed database and performing several panel data regression models, we find that family firms exhibit better financial performance on average than non-family firms when the founder is still involved in operations, although this effect decreases with firm size. With heirs in charge, there is no statistical difference in financial performance. Both direct and indirect ownership (control through pyramidal ownership structures within family business groups) affect firms' financial performance positively. However, this positive effect decreases with firm size. The results suggest that some kinds of family involvement appear to make firm growth expensive.     

Multidimensionale Auswertungen im Controlling

Bei der Einführung neuartiger EDV-Werkzeuge für das Controlling dominieren oft technische Aspekte, obwohl die L?sung betriebswirtschaftlicher Entscheidungsprobleme Ziel der Einführung ist.     

Winning pays: High school football championships and property values

A large literature explores the effect of schooling characteristics on property values, but touches little on non-academic attributes of schools. This study demonstrates the capitalization of high school football championships into school district property values using a model that controls for a series of fixed effects. Winning a state football championship increases property values by 1.65% in the year following the championship, exerting its strongest effect immediately after the championship is won. The effect is biggest in the AA division; the largest and most competitive division.     

Productivity Paradoxes and Their Resolution

Journal of Productivity Analysis - Foran objective function, how should each argument be assigned itsappropriate role in the change of the objective function, whenthe arguments are interrelated? In...     

Patterns of Industrial Change in the Post-Communist EU Candidate Countries

Ten post-communist countries are currently in the process of joining the European Union. This prospect, combined with their past industrial orientation and the unprecedented dynamics of the transition process after the fall of the Berlin wall, makes these countries an ideal case for examining the factors and results of industrial change. This article assesses the main issues and derives a qualitative picture on current trends and the nature of this process. It shows that, just one year before accession of the first countries, reforms still need to be fostered in many of them. Although signs of emerging strength in a small number of sectors are starting to show, EU membership will only lead to positive results for both parties if industrial change and value creation are able to take effect and provide economic prosperity.