Human extinction scenario frameworks

It is a natural human instinct to wonder about the future. Some have long speculated about the various events that could potentially lead to the extinction of the human race. While a dark subject, the point of exploring factors that could drastically impact the ability to sustain life on our planet has utility in preparing for events of this nature. It is in the spirit of learning how to change before catastrophe strikes that such wondering occurs.     

Is accounting a global or a local discipline? evidence from major research journals

Accounting research is torn between two competing forces. On the one hand, a quest for general results and internationalization of financial markets calls for a global approach and international co-operation. On the other hand, domestic institutional settings call for research that deals with the relevant problems of the existing accounting systems. In this paper we address the issue of how global or local the accounting research community currently is through an analysis of empirical studies published by six leading English language accounting research journals from the U.S.A., Europe and Australia, during the period 1984–1993. Our findings indicate that accounting still is a rather local discipline by nature: both empirical evidence and authors are significantly clustered along country lines. We find that 77% of papers fall in a category where the origin of the researcher, data and the journal, is the same. Especially there is a close link between the origin of the researcher and that of the data. The interpretation of the empirical findings lead us to a view of competing research élites. A powerful and currently dominating U.S. academic élite is centred around The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research and the Journal of Accounting and Economics; and an emerging, mostly European élite around Accounting, Organizations and Society. The functioning of research élites produces competing quality criteria which are intertwined with methodological and cultural issues. The emerging “policentric oligarchy” of research élites helps to remove institutional barriers to the knowledge production process and offers legitimate outlets for a wider range of approaches.     

Taylorism and the Mutual-Gains Strategy

Through the interwar years, disciples of Frederick W. Taylor built and sustained an alliance with organized labor that centered on the development of what has become known as the mutual-gains enterprise. This article examines this association, tracing its origins and evolution. In the process it challenges the tendency, common within the industrial relations community, to equate Taylor and Taylorism with authoritarianism and the exclusion of workers from the management process.     

Budgetary biasing in organizations: Theoretical framework and empirical evidence

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of budgetary biasing behaviour. The findings are of both a theoretical and empirical nature. The theoretical results provide a framework containing two major parts: an explanatory model of budgetary biasing at the individual level, and an organizational model for budgetary biasing. In the empirical part of the study an attempt is made to test the usability of the framework in a relatively large firm with several profit-centers. Biasing action is found to be a result of an interplay of various inter-related factors. Overall, the framework is considered to provide a valid basis for trying to understand and interpret the budgetary biasing behaviour in the firm studied.     

Time-Varying Fundamentals of the Euro–Dollar Exchange Rate

Abstract

This study examines changes in the impact of the economic fundamentals on the euro–dollar exchange rate. First, the monetary model is augmented with the equity markets and the model is estimated in its structural form. Second, the time-varying impacts of the long-run fundamentals representing equilibrium in different markets on the euro–dollar exchange rate are examined using Kalman filtering. The time-varying structural model indicated that the relative importance of the different fundamentals was not equal and the impact of the fundamentals was time-dependent.     

The euro–dollar exchange rate and equity flows

I examine equity flows between the US and the euro area and their impact on the euro–dollar exchange rate. I explain equity flows by examining the behavior of an international investor who maintains a minimum variance portfolio. An excess of euro area equity returns over US equity returns generates a flow of equity from the euro area to the US. The equity flow, the purchase of US equities by the euro-area residents, causes appreciation (depreciation) of the dollar (euro), while the purchase of euro area equities by US residents causes appreciation (depreciation) of the euro (dollar).     

Inter‐Organizational Cooperation Challenging Hierarchical Accountability: The Dominated Actors in a Municipal Joint Venture

New public management offers a number of solutions to the kinds of problems that public sector organizations experience. In taking an accountability perspective, this paper elaborates on how two of these – strict responsibility for performance, and inter‐organizational cooperation – may conflict. The setting for this study is a joint venture with a dominant municipality and six dominated municipalities as owners. The article examines how horizontal accountability processes may influence the dominated owners’ hierarchical accountability. The ability to account hierarchically for the quality of service within budgetary parameters is problematized, when dominated owners may dismantle their ability to demand horizontal accountability.     

No premature closures of debates,please: A response to Ahrens

In this response to Ahrens [Ahrens, T. (2008). Overcoming the subjective–objective divide in interpretive management accounting research. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 33(2–3), 292–297.] we clarify both the motivation and the core points of the Kakkuri-Knuuttila et al. [Kakkuri-Knuuttila, M.-L., Lukka, K., & Kuorikoski, J. (2008). Straddling between paradigms: A naturalistic philosophical case study on interpretive research in management accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 33(2–3), 267–291.] paper. We remind the management accounting academia that we should be careful not to close prematurely examinations and debates on issues, which are not yet truly resolved.     

Current Accounts and Coordination of Wage Bargaining

Open Economies Review - This study provides novel evidence on the impact of labor market institutions on current account dynamics. Our results suggest that a high degree of coordination of wage...