Beyond the Anglo‐Saxon and North European models: social partnership in a Greek textiles company

Much of the literature examining social partnership focuses on either Anglo‐Saxon or North European countries, differentiating between liberal market economies (LMEs) and coordinated market economies (CMEs). These studies argue, quite correctly, that the institutional forces shaping partnership in the two types of economy differ markedly, with the consequence that partnership takes somewhat different forms at the workplace. By contrast, there is only limited research on social partnership in Mediterranean economies—such as Greece—even though there are strong reasons to suggest it may be quite different from both LMEs and CMEs because of relatively recent military influence at state level and less well‐developed systems of industrial relations at organisational level. This article examines the forces operating both at national and at local level that facilitate or hinder the development of social partnership. It is based on the results of interviews with government, industry and union officials and a case study of partnership in a textiles company in northern Greece. It concludes that institutional forces provided workers with more protection than they would have achieved in an LME but that ultimately competitive pressures and a lack of effective workplace representation limited the degree to which the state can influence the processes and outcomes of social partnership at local level.     

Determinants of Earnings Management Ethics Among Accountants

Earnings management behavior is a concern of standard-setters, regulators and the accounting profession. This study examines the ethics of this practice using a national sample of 763 accounting practitioners, faculty and students. Possible determinants of the ethics of this practice such as perceived role of ethics and social responsibility, and personal moral philosophies (i.e. idealism and relativism) are explored. Results indicate a positive relationship between social responsibility, focus on long-term gains, idealism, and the ethical perception of earnings management and negative relationship between focus on short-term gains, relativism and the ethical perception of this practice. Implications for the accounting profession as it deals with the issue of earnings management are discussed.     

INSIDER TRADING EFFECTS ON STOCK RETURNS AROUND OPEN-MARKET STOCK REPURCHASE ANNOUNCEMENTS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

In this paper we empirically examine the effects of insider trading activities, the percentage of common shares outstanding authorized for repurchase, and management ownership on stock returns around open-market stock repurchase announcements. The study is conducted on a sample of 204 firms that announced open-market stock repurchases between 1982 and 1990. Results show that insider trading activities during the month that immediately precedes the announcement have a significant effect. While stockholders of firms with insider net selling activities earn positive excess returns, those of firms with insider net buying activities earn larger and more significant excess returns. Insider trading activities during more distant periods do not show any effects on stock returns. Results also indicate that management ownership has a significant positive effect on stock returns, and this effect is more positive when the percentage of common shares outstanding authorized for repurchase is large.     

The local market perception of firm risks during cross-listing events

We examine the local investors’ perceptions on the relative idiosyncratic risks around cross-listing events. We find that increases in relative firm-specific risks around the listing date are temporary and small for Level I American depositary receipts (ADRs) while Level III ADRs have the most variations. For exchange-listed ADRs from emerging markets, there is a significant decrease in the relative firm-specific risk in the year prior to listing, which increases during the cross-listing, while there are only significant increases in relative firm-specific risks for developed market firms. We interpret these as evidences of negative relationship between firm opaqueness and relative firm-specific risks.     

Psychosocial antecedents of communication,trust, and relationship effectiveness in new product development projects: a functional manager perspective

The basic differences between marketing managers and their technically trained counterpart managers [e.g., research and development (R&D), engineering, and manufacturing managers] in terms of work experience, training, and differing decision‐making styles have often been suggested as a source of conflict, which acts as a barrier to effective working relationships and integration during new product development (NPD) work. In this paper, we empirically explore this issue by developing and testing a model of psychosocial differences (thought worlds and psychological distance) between the two groups of managers and their effect on communication, trust, and relationship effectiveness during NPD projects. We find that while thought world differences do still matter, it was from a marketing perspective that they had a stronger effect. These findings have implications for top management trying to manage the functional manager interface during NPD projects. We propose a semi‐formalized approach to relationship building that may speed up the acquisition of social data that is often necessary to elevate working relationships to trusting ones and improve the efficiency of NPD work. Our model is tested using data from two samples, 184 technically trained managers and 145 marketing managers from Australian companies involved in NPD work.     

What can eastern European countries learn from the Slovak economy? A twin deficit growth approach

This paper applies an extended growth model to the Slovak economy and explains the potential pitfalls that a transition economy faces on the way to converging with other advanced European countries. Our empirical analysis shows that Slovakia grew at a higher rate than that allowed by the balance-of-payments equilibrium rate and that this is consistent with the accumulation of trade deficits over time. A scenarios analysis shows that improving trade competitiveness, changing import and export shares toward a current account balance, and financing the economy at a lower cost will be the most successful ways to achieve higher growth.     

Women returning to paid employment

Using data from the 1975/76 National Training Survey, this paper investigates some aspects of women's working lives. An attempt is made to control for life-cycle effects in order to investigate the extent to which the pattern of women's work histories has changed in younger cohorts. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of returning to the labour market after a period of withdrawal. This return is often accompanied by a phase of part-time employment and evidence is presented to suggest that there is widespread mismatching between a woman's training and the skill requirements of the job to which she returns. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings.