Qualified audit opinions and stock prices: Information content,announcement dates,and concurrent disclosures

We investigate whether announcements of ‘subject to’ audit opinions and disclaimers of opinions affect stock prices. The results indicate that many firms experience negative abnormal performance prior to the release of qualified opinions, and that the magnitude of prior abnormal performance differs across types of qualifications. However, there is little evidence of a stock price effect when qualifications are disclosed publicly. It is difficult to construct powerful tests of the announcement effect of a qualified opinion for three reasons. First, the announcement date of the qualification is not easily identified. Second, measuring the unanticipated component of the announcement requires a model of market expectations. Third, controls must be employed for concurrent disclosures. The problems concerning event date identification have ramifications for other accounting event studies, particularly studies of disclosures typically contained in the annual report or 10-K.     

Service worker appearance and the retail service encounter: the influence of gender and age

This study explores how the age and gender of service workers influence customers' perceptions of the retail service encounter in a health and beauty retailer. An analysis of qualitative interviews with 40 customers and 20 service workers suggests that customers seek reassurance in the service encounter by ‘matching’ and ‘mirroring’ the age and gender of customer-facing staff with their expectations of who should deliver appropriate service during the retail service encounter. These non-verbal cues, as a way of assessing the credibility of the service provider, are particularly important when customers are involved in high-involvement purchase occasions.     

Job dissatisfaction among retail employees: a study of three leading UK retailers

Despite the general awareness that working in retailing is unattractive to many workers, relatively little is known about which aspects of retailing are actually disliked, or how that varies across groups within the workforce, employers, or types of store. Initial analyses from an extensive survey of UK retail employees show that statistically significant variations exist in terms of dislike of retail employment and particular aspects of that employment. Exploratory factor analysis shows that while a general dimension of discontent is identifiable, there are also specific concerns, such as among more senior staff who are particularly concerned about long hours, and younger employees frustrated at a perceived lack of career progression. However, there is also a dimension of relative contentment with work circumstances among large numbers of female part-time workers and older staff.     

Japan's peanut import demand: implications for United States exports

Japan's import demand for both raw peanuts and processed peanut products was estimated using the Rotterdam model in order to determine the impact of an increase in the Japanese raw peanut quota on peanut imports from the USA and its competitors. The results indicate that if a larger import budget were allocated to raw peanut imports by Japan, most of the increase would be allocated to imports of Chinese raw peanuts. Furthermore, U.S. exports of peanut products could be affected if Japanese expenditures on peanut product imports change as a result of an increase in the quota for raw peanut imports. Thus, this study concludes that an increase in the Japanese import quota for raw peanuts provides only limited market opportunity for U.S. peanut exports, and China appears to benefit more than the USA from an increase in the Japanese raw peanut import quota. In contrast, the value added trade of peanut products could provide a better market opportunity for the U.S. peanut industry.     

Differences in Tourism Marketing Strategies Between Wineries Based on Size or Location

While the number of United States wineries has doubled and wine production tripled, only three states represent the majority of wineries and wine production. Yet, small wineries must contend with similar production issues that larger wineries face: cultivation of grapes, fermentation of juice, and finally bottling of the product.By comparison small wineries face an even tougher challenge—attracting consumers' attention to their products, much of which must be sold directly to consumers at the winery. These cellar door sales account for substantial dollar and case volume and are particularly lucrative.This study examined the relationship in off‐site and on‐site marketing strategies based upon winery size and location. The results indicated differences in tourism marketing strategies particularly with wine education at rural wineries and food/wine pairing techniques at larger wineries.     

Functions of measurements under general laws of error

Abstract

The first object of this paper is to extend somewhat a theorem of MISES ¹ (1) Fundamentalsätze der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung, (2) Grundlagen der Wahr. Mathematische Zeitschrift (1919) vol. 4, pp. 1–97; vol. 5, pp. 52–99. , who by the use of the STIELTJES integral ² Bliss, Integrals of Lebesgue, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 24 (1917), pp. 1–47. Bliss, A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a Stieltjes integral, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences vol 3 (1917), pp. 633–637. HILDEBRANDT, On Integrals related to and Extensions of the Lebesgue Integrals, Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 24 (1917), pp. 113–144; Ibid., pp. 177–202. CARMICHEAL, Conditions necessary and sufficient for the existence of the STIELTJE'S Integral, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 5 (1919), pp. 551–555. treats as a single subject continuous (geometric) and discontinuous (arithmetic) probability. Laplace ³ Oeuvres complete de LAPLACE, 3rd Ed., vol. 7, p. 266. , indeed, used a probability function which was in general continuous but had finite jumps, but he left no systematic treatment of the whole field of probability under such general conditions.     

From admiration to abhorrence: the contentious appeal of entrepreneurship across Europe

Although entrepreneurship seems to offer a universal economic solution, there are some doubts about whether it is universally attractive. We argue that entrepreneurship is a socially constructed concept and consequently the meanings, and hence the appeal, of the enterprise will vary internationally. We argue that how entrepreneurship is understood affects how attractive it seems. Accordingly, we investigated the meanings of entrepreneurship by analysing a range of metaphors of entrepreneurship gathered from schools across Europe. We found that both the meaning and understandings of the practices vary considerably. For most, the concept of entrepreneurship as an engine of the economy is attractive, but for some, the practices of entrepreneurs were considerably less appealing. We find links between national socio-economic contexts and attractiveness. We argue that culture and context seem to influence the social constructions of entrepreneurship and hence the attractiveness of entrepreneurial options. We also find that the pedagogical national narratives of the entrepreneur stand in dynamic tension with the performative national processes of entrepreneurship.     

Twisting Tradition: Consumers' Behavior Toward Alternative Closures

Consumer evaluations of products are not entirely based on the absolute attributes or value of the product, but rather on the discrepancy between the product's attributes and the expectations consumers have for that product. Following the Dowling and Staelin model on perceived risk, an evaluation was made of how alternative product closures interplay with consumers' situational use, subjective knowledge, level of self-confidence, and gender to influence the purchase decision.

The results provide support for the importance of such factors as situational use, the consumer's gender, level of self-confidence, and subjective knowledge, and how the style of closure affects the purchase decision. Managerial implications of the findings are mentioned.     

Easy to say,difficult to do: diversity management in retail

This article examines how operational managers are interpreting the management of diversity in practice. It is explicitly concerned with the way in which managing diversity was understood and applied in one large, long‐established British retailing company. The findings suggest that while the business benefits attributed to diversity management are appealing to employers, it is a concept that lacks clarity for line managers both in terms of what it is and how it should be implemented within the anti‐discrimination legal framework. Line managers, familiar with the value of demonstrating a common approach in their decision‐making as the key means of defence against claims of discriminatory treatment, regarded a diversity management agenda concerned with recognising and responding to individual differences as more likely to lead to feelings of unfairness and claims of unequal treatment. It will be argued that, in the implementation of organisational diversity initiatives, employers need to take greater account of the tensions facing line managers, their interpretation of diversity management and perceptions of fair treatment as well as the operational context.