Australian not‐for‐profit sector views on the conceptual framework,accounting standards and accounting information

In this paper, we examine the conceptual framework, accounting standards and accounting information relevant to the not‐for‐profit (NFP) sector. Based on the responses of 242 Australian NFP managers, we find support for the inclusion of accountability in the conceptual framework, and for a common set of accounting standards across NFP and for‐profit sectors with additional standards or paragraphs to recognise NFP specific issues. Respondents also rated information within general‐purpose financial reports to be useful for decision making within their organisations. We offer suggestions as to what our findings mean for the development of accounting standards for the NFP sector.     

Do Imports Spur Incremental Innovation in the South?

We estimate that a one-standard-deviation increase in a firm's import penetration ratio raises its likelihood of having engaged in an incremental innovation by 4.48% using a random-sampled firm survey in China. The estimate is close to those in Gorodnichenko, Svejnar and Terrell (2010). A number of empirical strategies rule out alternative explanations as sufficient drivers of our result. Competitive pressure from imports is shown to be an underlying mechanism through which imports spur incremental innovation. We discuss how the link between imports and innovation in the South differ from that in the North.     

Antecedents of Green Brand Equity: An Integrated Approach

A steady demand for green products from concerned consumers has led companies to introduce new product lines that match or exceed consumer environmental concerns. Nonetheless, not all the organizations were able to achieve significant returns on their investments in green products. These failures are generally attributed towards companies’ inability to overcome consumer scepticism towards the performance of functional and green attributes of their brands to generate a positive green image and green value in consumers mind. Therefore, the question arises that does the success in promoting green brand image and value depend on consumer existing perceptions about the brand quality and credibility? This study analyzes the influence of brand perceive quality and credibility on consumer perceptions towards a brand green image, green value and green equity. A theoretical model with hypothesized relationships is developed and tested to answer these research questions. Data have been collected from the consumers of electrical and electronic goods. The hypothesized relationships were tested with the help of structural equation modeling procedure. The results suggest that brand perceived quality and its overall credibility does have a significant influence on generating a greener image, green perceive value and green brand equity.     

Reinventing the wheel? A critical view of demand-chain management

Demand–supply alignment as a means for value creation in the marketplace is not a new concept either in the marketing or supply chain management literature. Recent developments in demand chain management (DCM) revamp this issue, which is particularly critical for today's firms. DCM studies, however, remain isolated from wider academic debates and are unclear on the processes required for the demand–supply alignment inside the firm, incurring the risk of becoming irrelevant. Through a systematic literature review and qualitative content analysis, we leveraged the existing knowledge on interfaces between intra-firm departments to identify the dimensions of demand–supply alignment and map the drivers, enablers and consequences of implementing such an alignment. These outcomes, together with theoretical perspectives, are used to improve the idea of DCM, ground theoretical reflections on the concept and suggest avenues for research. This study should interest researchers and practitioners willing to adopt the DCM strategy.     

Financial Reporting and Trade Credit: Evidence from Mandatory IFRS Adoption*

We investigate the effect of mandatory IFRS adoption on trade credit. We document that firms in countries that adopt IFRS receive more trade credit from their suppliers, consistent with improved financial reporting quality and comparability playing a role in facilitating informal financing. This increase is larger for countries with a low level of societal trust, a poor pre‐IFRS‐adoption information environment, and stronger legal enforcement. These cross‐sectional results suggest that the conditions under which higher‐quality information is made publicly available affect suppliers' decisions to provide trade credit. This increase is also larger for firms with greater exposure to foreign markets, a finding that highlights the importance of more comparable international financial reporting standards in facilitating cross‐country trade credit. We also find that IFRS adoption has a stronger positive effect on trade credit for firms with greater liquidity needs. Finally, we find that firms in countries that adopt IFRS also extend more trade credit to their customers. Overall, our results support the notion that financial reporting can have a causal effect on trade credit.     

Special issue on “The role of networks in entrepreneurial performance: new answers to old questions?”

The nature and extent of relationships between entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial performance are old questions. Scholars have explored the nature of entrepreneurial networks and have focused on their relationship with, and effects on, performance, which is viewed in this special issue in terms of the strategic development of established businesses and new ventures. However, while much is now known about the origins and effects of social networks there continues to a paucity of research on how social networks are used in various organizations, and when one or more networks are drawn upon for what specific purpose. Each article in this special issue addresses one or more of these questions in a range of industries and environments, namely poor village entrepreneurs who have to work in a highly challenging financial and social environment in Bangladesh, “early internationalizing small firms” in South Africa, high technology “early-stage ventures” in Hong Kong, 3-D technology ventures that operate with an “open” business model, and the “multi-rational” nature of networks in family businesses in and beyond the UK. In all, this collection of papers comprises a body of scholarship with fine-grained studies on how and when specific social networks are drawn on in various forms of organization. The subsequent discussion of these issues extends knowledge of the various ways in which entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial businesses advance their interests by leveraging familiar business and social networks.     

DYNAMIC ORDER SUBMISSION AND HERDING BEHAVIOR IN ELECTRONIC TRADING

I analyze the dynamic trading behavior of market participants by developing a bivariate modeling framework for describing the arrival process of buy and sell orders in a limit order book. The model contains an extended autoregressive conditional duration model with a flexible generalized Beta distribution to explain the duration process, combined with a dynamic logit model to capture the traders' order submission strategy. I find that the state of the order book as well as the speed of the order arrival have a significant influence on the order placement, inducing temporal asymmetric market movements.     

The Impact of Electronic Commerce on Procurement

Internet technology has been increasingly used to enhance the global competitiveness of various business applications through the widespread electronic commerce (EC) functions. Many Internet-based systems have been designed and developed for supply chain management (SCM) in various areas such as computer, garment, and publishing industries, which mainly center on communication infrastructure, coordination between production and distribution, and procurement functions with security mechanisms. However, EC is not a panacea. On many occasions, participants (including buyers, sellers, and enablers) face various risks and overhead during the deployment of a new technology. In this article, we present the impact of EC on procurement processes in supply chains, highlighting the issues of buyers, sellers, and the transaction processes involved. The procurement processes are classified into preprocurement (sourcing), procurement (quotation, negotiation, order placement, and transaction), and postprocurement (delivery). Moreover, a four-phase migration model of procurement onto the Internet is introduced to illustrate the technical, security, and financial requirements in the deployment process of EC. The migration model not only gives a development guideline of procurement functions, but also provides an evaluation framework of e-procurement. An industrial example is used to illustrate the corresponding evolution as a result of EC deployment. The paper concludes with a summary of EC impact and future research directions.     

A Modern Resource Based Approach to Unrelated Diversification

abstract    For over three decades, the questions of how and why an organization diversifies into related and unrelated businesses have drawn the attention of strategy scholars. However, explanations of unrelated diversification have been less than clear. A conceptual model of unrelated diversification is thus proposed. In drawing on Penrose's (1959 ) resource based approach, unrelated diversification is explained by an organization's 'three pillars', which consist of its strength of dynamic capabilities, absorptive capacity, and weak ties. The role of the three pillars is to discover new resource applications or uses in conditions of market failure that are characterized by 'incomplete' markets. A novel feature of this model is that an organization can diversify more broadly than predicted by Penrose (1959 ) and other modern resource-based approaches ( Teece et al., 1997 ). Furthermore, unrelated diversification can be beneficial. This study also offers suggestions to measure the three pillars; its contributions and implications are discussed as well.