Confirmatory search as a useful heuristic? testing the veracity of entrepreneurial conjectures

Researchers have focused attention on the problematic effects of confirmatory search applied to opportunity evaluations, arguing that a confirmatory strategy almost always leads to poor decisions. The implicit assumption of this research is that confirmatory search cannot conclusively falsify an entrepreneurial conjecture. In this article we focus on circumstances where the search for confirming information (positive test strategy) is a superior strategy for testing the veracity of a conjecture.     

Leader Power and Agency-Communion Orientations as Moderators of the Effects of Organizational Characteristics on Workplace Bullying

Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal - This conceptual paper suggests that the distinction between an autocratic and democratic leadership orientation may serve as an important moderator of...     

Definition of the Reporting Entity

Harmonisation between Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Government Finance Statistics is the highest priority for Australian public-sector reporting. This paper addresses the question of the reporting entity in a harmonised GAAP-GFS framework and discusses whether the GFS General Government Sector meets the criteria for the general-purpose reporting entity. The objective of harmonisation is to achieve an Australian accounting standard for a single set of government reports which are auditable and comparable between jurisdictions, and in which the outcome statements are directly comparable with the relevant budget statements. Since there is widespread interest in General Government Sector information by users, the sector is the obvious candidate for the government general-purpose reporting entity.     

Can Stock Recommendations Predict Earnings Management and Analysts’ Earnings Forecast Errors?

In this article we present evidence that a firm's stock price sensitivity to earnings news, as measured by outstanding stock recommendation, affects its incentives to manage earnings and, in turn, affects analysts' ex post forecast errors. In particular, we find a tendency for firms rated a Sell (Buy) to engage more (less) frequently in extreme, income–decreasing earnings management, indicating that they have relatively stronger (weaker) incentives to create accounting reserves especially in the form of earnings baths than other firms. In contrast, firms rated a Buy (Sell) are more (less) likely to engage in earnings management that leaves reported earnings equal to or slightly higher than analysts' forecasts. Our empirical results provide direct evidence of purported, but heretofore, weakly documented equity market incentives for firms to manage earnings. They are also consistent with a growing body of literature that finds analysts either cannot anticipate or are not motivated to anticipate completely in their forecasts firms' efforts to manage earnings.     

Global network configuration for innovation: a study of international fibre innovation

This paper develops and empirically investigates the notion of network configuration for innovation. In many industries, firms are increasingly locked into a state of network innovation. Innovation, in such contexts, is often driven by those firms who configure the network to access and control critical innovation knowledge widely dispersed throughout the network. The paper presents the findings of an in-depth study of the evolution of three innovation networks in the global fibre industry. The mechanisms by which firms configure extended networks throughout the innovation processes are unravelled and discussed. A typology of three configuration types derived from the finding is forwarded. The findings suggest that successful innovation network configuration involves recognising where the innovation value resides in the network and developing capabilities and mechanisms to understand and access such value. However, this is problematic for firms embedded in their own base of knowledge and patterns of relationships. Specific managerial implications and suggestions for future research are forwarded.     

Strategic Entrepreneurs at Work: The Nature,Discovery, and Exploitation of Entrepreneurial Opportunities

What do entrepreneurial opportunities look like? How do firms discover and exploit these opportunities to create value and sustain competitive advantage? This paper reviews the strategic management and entrepreneurship literatures to identify the nature and character of entrepreneurial opportunities and the entrepreneurial strategies that firms employ to seize and commercialize these opportunities. Three emerging schools are identified. The economic school argues that entrepreneurial opportunities exist as a result of the distribution of information about material resources in society. The cultural cognitive school argues that entrepreneurial opportunities exist as a result of environmental ambiguity and the cultural resources available to interpret and define these opportunities. Finally, the sociopolitical school stresses the role of network and political structures in defining entrepreneurial opportunities. We integrate these perspectives to offer a way to improve understanding of the opportunity creation and exploitation process.     

What is an Entrepreneurial Opportunity?

The nature and source of entrepreneurial opportunity are important issues for understanding how markets function and come into being. In addition to describing the forum held on the topic and summarizing the contributions of the articles that appear in the special issue, this article shares a number of lessons learned during the workshop and the editorial process. We explore three of the most important reasons for confusion about the opportunity construct: (1) the “objectivity” of opportunity, (2) the perceived importance of one particular individual in determining the direction of the social world and (3) what distinguishes the sub-class of “entrepreneurial” opportunity from the broader category of opportunity in general. Finally, we offer some directions for future research by illuminating important issues that emerged from the workshop but that remain largely unanswered by the papers of this special issue.      

Managerial Authority as Political Authority: A Retrospective Examination of Christopher McMahon’s Authority and Democracy

An introduction to the March, 2005 symposium “The Political Theory of Organizations: A Retrospective Examination of Christopher McMahon’s Authority and Democracy” held in San Francisco as part of the Society for Business Ethics Group Meeting at the Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association. Jeffery Smith is an Assistant Professor and founding Director of the Banta Center for Business, Ethics and Society at the University of Redlands. His current research focuses on communicative ethics and the moral foundations of collaborative decision-making within economic organizations. He is also interested in the role of principles in moral decision-making and the extent to which principled decisions can be made in organizational contexts. Professor Smith’s writings have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics: A European Review, Southern Journal of Philosophy and in other journals. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2000.     

Moral Markets and Moral Managers Revisited

In the wake of recent corporate scandals, this paper examines the claim made by John Boatright that business ethics, as it is currently conceived, “rests on a mistake.” Ethics in business should not be achieved through managerial vision, discretion or responsibility; rather, ethics should shape the design of institutions that regulate business from the outside. What ethicists should advocate for, according to Boatright, are moral markets not moral managers. I explore the empirical and normative dimensions of his claim with special attention paid to the extent to which Boatright’s development of the economic theory of the firm supports his position. I conclude by suggesting some reasons why moral markets and moral management are compatible frameworks for corporate reform.