Conjectures on the influence of the 1920s Betriebswirtschaftslehre on Sweeney's Stabilized Accounting

The antecedents of Sweeney's Stabilized Accounting are early examples of responses to economic and political pressures. Sweeney's 1927 and 1928 works promulgating Goldmark Balance Sheets (Goldmarkbilanz) appeared, however, when the unique events (viz. hyperinflation and potential collapse of the Reich), which were the catalysts for backwards rescaling procedures of Goldmarkbilanz, had disappeared. Sweeney's writings pre and post 1928 differ markedly. Vacillations between indexation (backwards then forwards), historical cost, then replacement cost based stabilisation methods, which pepper his work, mirror the changing fortunes of Schmalenbach's, Mahlberg's and Schmidt's proposals. Sweeney's legacy is twofold: (i) the popularisation of indexed accounting, particularly in Anglo-American countries, and (ii) recognition of the need to couple a homogeneous (stable) unit of measure with a function of accounting which was to provide a measure of an entity's command over goods and services and any changes therein.     

Taxing a Commodity with and without Revenue Neutrality: A Calibrated Theoretical Consumer Equilibrium Model

It has long been recognized that taxing a commodity that generates negative externalities can be used to reduce its consumption. One way to do this is to impose revenue neutrality but that may alter the tax rate required to meet a consumption reduction target. We explore the relationships among the commodity tax rate, the demand and supply elasticities, and the revenue offsets by calibrating a theoretical consumer equilibrium model and then recalibrating it with alternative parameter configurations. For each configuration we simulate equilibrium for three policy scenarios: no neutrality, neutrality achieved by subsidizing other commodities, and neutrality achieved by income transfer.     

Skills, Schooling, and Household Income in Ghana

This article examines the impact of cognitive skills on theincome of households in Ghana. It uses scores on mathematicsand English tests to measure cognitive skills and estimatesthe returns to these skills based on farm profit, off-farm income,and total income. The article uses Powell's censored least absolutedeviations and symmetrically trimmed least squares estimatorsto estimate farm and off-farm income. In contrast to Heckman'stwo-step or the Tobit estimator, Powell's estimators are consistentin the presence of heteroscedasticity and are robust to otherviolations of normality. The results show that cognitive skillshave a positive effect on total and off-farm income but do nothave a statistically significant effect on farm income.     

Arbitrage-Free Valuation of Exhaustible Resource Firms

We provide an arbitrage-free valuation of exhaustible resource firms through extending the Gibson and Schwartz (1990) model and also the Jamshidian and Fein (1990) solution to valuing an entire petroleum firm based on quoted oil futures. Our solutions are compared to accounting, traditional finance and to stockmarket valuations on a daily basis. An alternative expression of the valuations relative to stockmarket prices is in terms of the time varying implied 'market price' of convenience yield risk. Initial illustrations show that the implied convenience yield risk is not necessarily consistent between stockmarket and derivative market participants. Finally, we calculate the sensitivities of petroleum firm values to changes in oil prices, the convenience yield observable on NYMEX, and oil price volatilities. These partial derivatives show some of the complexities in the dynamic hedging process of using the contingent claims approach to valuing (and hedging) real assets.     

A situated metacognitive model of the entrepreneurial mindset

We develop a framework to investigate the foundations of an ‘entrepreneurial mindset’ — described by scholars as the ability to sense, act, and mobilize under uncertain conditions. We focus on metacognitive processes that enable the entrepreneur to think beyond or re-organize existing knowledge structures and heuristics, promoting adaptable cognitions in the face of novel and uncertain decision contexts. We integrate disparate streams of literature from social and cognitive psychology toward a model that specifies entrepreneurial metacognition as situated in the entrepreneurial environment. We posit that foundations of an entrepreneurial mindset are metacognitive in nature, and subsequently detail how, and with what consequence, entrepreneurs formulate and inform “higher-order” cognitive strategies in the pursuit of entrepreneurial ends.     

Advertising as a Positive Force

Abstract

This paper presents the results of two empirical studies designed to assess the effectiveness of sexual embedding in advertising. In Study 1, a sample of 424 viewed and evaluated two ads with embeds or two matched ads without embeds. The results indicated that embedding was effective in raising attitudinal evaluations of a liquor ad but not a cigarette ad. In Study 2, GSR measurements were taken on a sample of 36 subjects while they viewed both versions (with and without embeds) of two ads. The results of Study 2 indicated that embedding was effective in increasing GSR measurements for the versions of the ads with embeds.     

Cable Television and Advertising: An Assessment

Since its inception, the cable television industry has experienced a large growth rate. Today 16 percent of the U.S. television homes are linked to some form of cable. While there have been numerous federal, state, and local inquiries and a great deal of literature devoted to cable development and potential, there has only been a limited amount of study devoted to cable's relationship to the advertising industry. This paper discusses some of the more pertinent issues of the cable-advertising industry relationship. It traces the past developments of cable's structure and relationship to advertising and offers some current viewpoints concerning this interesting relationship.     

Financial slack and venture managers' decisions to seek a new alliance

We examine two distinct perspectives to analyze the role of financial slack in the decisions of technology venture managers to seek strategic alliances. According to the capabilities perspective, financial slack provides managers with the ability to maximize the benefits from acquiring missing capabilities through alliance formation, whereas according to the resource dependence perspective, financial slack buffers the managers' motivations to seek alliances as a reaction to external environmental scarcity. Drawing on an experimental design and data on 1632 decisions nested within 51 managers, we find support for a combined perspective demonstrating that managerial discretion in the form of financial slack moderates how internal capabilities and context encourage managers to seek alliances. We discuss implications of our work for the alliance literature.     

From dreaming to believing: a review of consumer engagement behaviours with brands’ social media content across the holiday travel process

This paper reviews social media user engagement behaviours with brands and proposes a new stage within the travel process. Specifically, the pre-trip stage is examined and investigation into a two sub-stage split is proposed; pre-purchase and post-purchase. Dubbed the Believing phase, this paper calls for research into the patterns of engagement behaviour towards hotel brands’ content at this currently under-researched stage. Current social media-focussed research examines influence on purchasing decisions of users, social media usage on-site, and post-trip evaluation. There remains a conceptual gap highlighting the behavioural patterns of users during the period between initial purchase and subsequent departure.