Bury pacioli in africa: a bookkeeper's reification of accountancy

The origins of accountancy are all too frequently equated with the antecedents of double-entry bookkeeping, notwithstanding warnings from both Pacioli and Littleton to the contrary. It is ironic that Pacioli—the formalizer of double-entry bookkeeping—is lionized today in the appellation, 'Father of Accounting'. Here, we argue that this promotion of Pacioli the Technocrat fails to acknowledge incipient social aspects of his work (and that found in more ancient texts). Further, we contend that such reconstructions of Paciolian and ancient works are not entirely innocent. Rather, they fit nicely with a Eurocentric and post-colonial ideology, which anoints with enthusiasm an Italian monk as accounting's premier contributor to modern civilization ( sic ). This view simultaneously construes other civilizations as underdeveloped, pre-modern, and even barbaric (with the corollary of providing a moral pretext for invading, occupying and 'saving' a subjugated people). It should come as no surprise that Western accounting scholars haven't searched too hard for alternative 'Fathers of Accounting' among colonized civilizations. This article, in contrast to the orthodox wisdom, seeks to redeem Littleton's notion of 'Accountancy' in a way that encompasses the diversity of counting, measuring, recording, reporting and accountability that functioned in different ancient and contemporary social formations. Such a view introduces an older and richer lineage for accountancy—as a field that is, and always has been, integral to social, political and cultural life. In short, we propose burying Pacioli the Bookkeeper, and redeeming Pacioli the Social Actor, by explicating the social, cultural and political content inchoate in his work, and that found in even more explicit pre-Paciolian ancient texts (particularly those from Africa, that reach back to the Dawn of Civilization).     

Cultural influences and the mediating role of socio-cultural integration processes on the performance of cross-border mergers and acquisitions

This paper reports findings from a longitudinal case study (2005–2011) of a merger between an Austrian and a German energy provider. I develop a model of socio-cultural integration processes based on an analysis of critical incidents expressed in 71 problem-centred interviews and observations with acquired and acquiring employees at four different points of time: immediately before the takeover and during the first negotiation talks, and one, three and six years after the takeover. The findings suggest that the relationship between national and organizational cultural differences and M&A outcomes is mediated by socio-cultural integration processes defined in terms of the formation of interpersonal relationships, trust and shared identity. Based on these findings I formulate specific propositions and build an evidence-based model of M&A socio-cultural integration processes that guides future research and practice.     

Health insurance and lifestyles

This article contributes to the discussion surrounding the existence of ex ante moral hazard and propitious selection in a voluntary private health insurance scenario. Moreover, it provides an estimation of the determinants of lifestyle choices and of private health insurance demand. A multivariate probit is estimated for health insurance demand and lifestyle decisions to take into account the potential endogeneity of these decisions. The results indicate that there is evidence of ex ante moral hazard in deciding to do sports and eating healthy snacks. Hence, no propitious selection has been found for these decisions. Another relevant result shows that there is no individual heterogeneity for the lifestyle choices, except for smoking, and private health insurance choice. Evidence from the results also supports the idea that there are nonobservable variables playing a role in the lifestyle decisions. These results provide some directions for policymakers, such as the promotion of precautionary behaviours and the use of implicit lifestyle drivers to promote healthy choices by people.     

Brain drain and income distribution

In a context in which increased income inequality has raised much concern, and skilled workers move easily across countries, an important question arises: how does the brain drain affect income distribution in the source economy? We address this question and introduce two contributions to the literature on brain drain. First, we present and solve a simple stylized model to study whether and, if so, how the brain drain affects the distribution of income, in a context in which higher education is publicly financed with general taxes. Second, we explore empirically the effect of an increase in skilled emigration on income distribution. A key prediction of our theoretical model is the existence of a non-monotonic relationship between income inequality and emigration of skilled workers. Our empirical data confirm this result, showing a statistically significant inverse U-shaped form.     

An Assessment Framework for Practicing Facilitator

There is an on-going recognition of the need for facilitation to support different group settings. However, the skills and expertise required to successfully facilitate a group of participants to achieve their goal is a challenging task to achieve. There are a number of barriers towards facilitation: A facilitator needs to operate at many different levels at the same time; understand the politics within the group; encourage interaction within the group; and guide participants through tasks and activities, while balancing the needs of the group and the client to reach real outcomes. One of the key competences of a facilitator is flexibility, to adapt to varying circumstances. The complexity and dynamic nature of delivering an appropriate and effective facilitation service makes it therefore difficult to assess the facilitator’s performance in any facilitated session. In this paper we describe a framework in the form of an artefact developed to aid the facilitators in assessing their own performance in different meetings. Facilitation Service Assessment Framework (FSAF) allows facilitators to define metrics and measures in the context of facilitator’s goals. The assessment framework consists of a structure and a process which facilitators use to apply the framework to facilitation scenarios. Finally, the paper describes how experts evaluated FSAF in alternative scenarios by running a survey and then by conducting interviews.     

Infant mortality in Europe,socio-economic determinants based on aggregate data

A great deal of research has been conducted on the determinant factors of infant mortality. In this work, the focus is placed on the aggregate determinants of infant mortality in the EU. Data is collected from Eurostat and World Health Organization – Health for All databases for the period 2005-12. Robust regressions and panel data regressions are estimated in order to test the main determinants of infant mortality in the EU. Both the GDP and birth before the age of 20 influence infant mortality rate. It is likely that as mothers mean age at the first child increases, the rate of infant mortality decreases. The results found here contribute to the discussion on the factors explaining infant mortality in Europe and to future health policy. In particular, controlling teen motherhood may help to reduce infant mortality rate in the EU.     

Innovation and exporting: evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper investigates the relationship between innovation and the export behavior of firms using data from a representative panel of Spanish firms over 1991–2002. It presents a simple theoretical model of the firm decision to export and innovate that guides the econometric analysis. Consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model, the econometric results suggest a positive effect of firm innovation on the probability of participation in export markets. The results further reveal the heterogeneous effects of different types of innovations on the firm export participation. In particular, product upgrading appears to have a larger effect on the firm export participation than the introduction of cost-saving innovations. These findings are robust to firm unobserved heterogeneity, dynamic specifications, and to the use of instrumental variables to control for the potential endogeneity between innovation and exporting.     

Professional Directors and Governance Quality

We examine professional directors—board members with no employment outside of serving as independent directors. We find that boards with a higher percentage of professional directors engage in more acquisitions, experience lower acquisition announcement returns, and exhibit lower performance‐turnover sensitivity and lower financial performance. We also examine the returns surrounding the appointment‐announcement dates of professional directors and find that firms experience significantly lower cumulative abnormal returns upon the appointment announcement of professional directors as compared to nonprofessional directors. The negative returns are primarily experienced by firms that face greater agency issues, suggesting that the market does not value professional directors for stricter monitoring. Overall, our findings do not lend support for calls to professionalize corporate boards.     

Making ePhilanthropy work for your organization

As some leading-edge non-profits made initial strides in using the Web as a part of their fund-raising efforts, we began to see that ePhilanthropy also meant online outreach, e-mail campaigns, advocacy and more. Every day, the early adopters have pushed the envelope to redefine this new term.     

An Internet Access Solution: MANET Routing and a Gateway Selection Approach for Disaster Scenarios

After natural and man-made disasters, the telecommunication infrastructure is usually severely damaged, thus hampering communication and rescue services. It is impossible for disaster victims to make use of communication devices such as cellular phones, iPads, or their laptops to make a connection with the outside world (Internet). With infrastructure less and decentralized features, the mobile ad hoc network (MANET) can play an important role in improving communication in post-disaster affected areas. Therefore, the important functionalities of a MANET that allow users to create dynamically configurable wireless networks without fixed infrastructure using common devices such as mobile phones is necessary. This paper reports on the development of new techniques for routing selection and gateway load balancing in MANETs. Network fairness, throughput, and packet delays are measured empirically. The proposed mechanisms can reduce network congestion and consequently improve communication in affected areas.