Ownership structure and earnings management in emerging markets—An institutionalized agency perspective

Previous earnings management research has largely focused on firm-level governance mechanisms in single countries or on macro-level variables in multiple countries. Building on this research, we incorporate firm ownership predictors along with national institutional dimensions to explore why firm decision makers in emerging markets vary in their earnings management behavior. Our theoretical framework integrates agency and institutional theories proposing that firm-level ownership mechanisms do not function in isolation, but are reinforced or attenuated by elements of the institutional governance environment. The multilevel empirical analysis of 1200 firms in 24 emerging markets indicates that controlling ownership is positively related to earnings management. We find that the level of minority shareholder protection in a country weakens this positive relationship. We also find that regulatory quality strengthens the negative relationship between institutional ownership and earnings management activity. It is hoped that awareness of how firm ownership structures interact with national-level institutions in affecting firm-level behavior will help managers and investors develop skills and practices to better cope with business norms in emerging economies.     

Analytic collaboration in virtual innovation projects

Researchers attend to innovation and collaboration issues. Yet, the relevant literature devotes scant attention to the relationship between collaboration effectiveness and virtual innovation team context, while there are clear indications that both subjects relate with growing concerns in today's business setting. This article reviews extant literature and state-of-the art collaboration systems, and elucidate dynamic contextual factors among virtual innovation team members. The results show the antecedents and interrelationship among these factors, suggesting an optimal collaboration model for virtual innovation project teams. This paper documents the empirical observations of a virtual innovation project for advanced textile manufacturing technologies, and examines the due collaboration taking place among different project participants. Understanding the set of contextual factors emerging from virtual innovation projects can help managers classify, and employ the most effective collaboration mechanism for enhancing the corresponding project performance and effectiveness pragmatically.     

Price setting behaviour in Latvia: Econometric evidence from CPI micro data

This paper discovers the driving forces behind Latvian firms' decisions to adjust prices by using various panel logit models, which explain the probability of observing price change by a broad set of exogenous variables. The results show that the consumer price formation in Latvia is a combination of both state-dependent and time-dependent behaviours. On the one hand, frequency of price changes depends on inflation, demand conditions, and the size of last price changes. On the other hand, we observe some elements of time-dependent price setting like price truncation and strong seasonal pattern. We also find several important differences in the price setting behaviour in cases of price increases and decreases. The fact that frequency of price changes in Latvia depends on inflation as well as demand and supply conditions allows for faster price adjustment process in the event of high distortions in the economy.     

A study on abdominal wagging in the fire ant, <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Solenopsis invicta</Emphasis>, with speculation on its meaning

Social vertebrates have a rich repertoire of communication signals and modalities. Recent work on the social insects has uncovered a diverse set of communication modalities including chemical, tactile, visual, and auditory signals to communicate a wide variety of information on the location of distant food sites, distress, and aggression. Here, we investigated abdominal wagging in the fire ant, Solenopsis invicta. We found that the abdominal “wagging” that occurred inside the fire ant nests differed significantly from the abdominal “flagging” that is known to occur outside the fire ant nests. Neither sounds nor venom was emitted during abdominal wagging inside the fire ant nests. Moreover, the incidence and duration of abdominal wagging was greater when workers were tending brood or ingesting food than when engaged in non-brood related tasks or in donating food. Lastly, inside the nests, abdominal wagging neither attracted nor repelled nearby workers. Thus, we speculate that wagging is an expression of pleasure while tending brood or ingesting food that falls along the continuum between the aggressive nature of abdominal flagging and the distress call of abdominal stridulation.     

The Ambiguity of Joint Asset Ownership: Cautionary Tales From Uganda and South Africa

ABSTRACT

This study uses individual-level survey data from women and men in Uganda and South Africa to examine coupled women's joint ownership of land and housing. It compares women's control over and benefits from jointly held land and housing with those of coupled women not owning land or housing at all and coupled women owning them solely. The lack of a clear and consistent advantage of joint ownership potentially arises from frequent disagreement within couples about whether the land or house is jointly owned. The study serves as a reminder of the complexities of joint ownership in practice, particularly within families, that need to be considered in order for coupled women to benefit from joint asset ownership. Efforts promoting joint ownership, for example, joint titling and marital property laws supporting joint ownership, should not only consider these complexities but also establish and communicate clear and enforceable rules for joint ownership.     

The Paradox of Power in CSR: A Case Study on Implementation

Purpose Although current literature assumes positive outcomes for stakeholders resulting from an increase in power associated with CSR, this research suggests that this increase can lead to conflict within organizations, resulting in almost complete inactivity on CSR. Methods A Single in-depth case study, focusing on power as an embedded concept. Results Empirical evidence is used to demonstrate how some actors use CSR to improve their own positions within an organization. Resource dependence theory is used to highlight why this may be a more significant concern for CSR. Conclusions Increasing power for CSR has the potential to offer actors associated with it increased personal power, and thus can attract opportunistic actors with little interest in realizing the benefits of CSR for the company and its stakeholders. Thus power can be an impediment to furthering CSR strategy and activities at the individual and organizational level.     

The Village Network™: Partnership and collaboration to alleviate poverty in subsistence marketplaces

The Village Network is a unique model of poverty alleviation involving the collaboration of a host subsistence market community and a nonprofit organization, typically a university, with a multidisciplinary academic module. All parties in this partnership stand to gain from collaboration. The subsistence market benefits from the skill set and labor provided by the university. The university benefits by placing their students in a position to apply theory guided by the social and economic development experience and insights of the indigenous village leadership. The coordinating organization improves relationships and fosters growth in developing communities. The discussion then focuses on insights about subsistence marketplaces that emerge from this initiative.     

‘These are not my people’: queer sport spaces and the complexities of community

Community is often imagined as a space of common beliefs, shared values and/or common purpose. For many individuals of non-normative gender or sexual identity, sports are a means to find and/or develop community. Fostered as spaces of inclusivity and an alternative to heteronormativity and cissexism, sports teams enable and promote a progressive community potential. However, they simultaneously erect overarching boundaries at the expense of some bodies and identities. Based on narratives of 30 diversely identified queer individuals, the authors find that within Canadian queer sports spaces complexities with respect to diverse embodiments – from femme invisibility, racism and trans acceptance, to a preference for androgyny, and fat phobia – ignite uncertainties of community idealism. This paper argues for a re-conceptualisation of community that is based on complexity and struggle, rather than on an assumed unity and, thus privileged safety.     

Preferences for Performance versus Potential in Promotion Recommendations

As high-performing employees with high potential (or superstars) are rare in the workplace, practitioners often face a performance–potential trade-off when deciding who to promote. We use regulatory focus theory as a framework to examine whether Canadian managers (n = 58) and human resource (HR) professionals (n = 121) show a preference for performance or potential when making near-term promotion recommendations. We show that respondents generally had a preference for performance versus potential when making their recommendations, and HR professionals versus managers accorded greater weight to potential. We discuss the implications of the relative emphasis on performance versus potential in promotion recommendations and when this may contribute to organizational inefficiencies.