Succession planning vs. agency theory: a test of Harris and Helfat's interpretation of plurality announcement market returns

In this note we respond to Harris and Helfat's (1998) reinterpretation of the results in Worrell, Nemec, and Davidson (1997) . Harris and Helfat argued that the negative stock market response associated with plurality announcements could be the result of inadequate corporate succession planning rather than with the agency cost explanation. Our results, here, show that duality and plurality announcements do not hurt shareholder wealth as long as there is an heir apparent and, therefore, are more consistent with the succession planning explanation than with agency theory. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Food choice and school meals: primary schoolchildren's perceptions of the healthiness of foods and the nutritional implications of food choices

Since the 1980 Education Act, school caterers have been operating within a commercial context and therefore can only provide the foods that they know that children will eat. At the same time, nutritionists have been concerned that the greater degree of choice that children now have at lunchtime is resulting in the more frequent consumption of meals of poor nutritional quality. A knowledge of children's food preferences, the factors influencing them, and their perceptions of the healthiness of foods is needed if school caterers and those involved in nutrition education are to work together to help children choose a nutritionally balanced meal. This paper reports on children's perceptions of the healthiness or otherwise of foods commonly served at school lunches and the reasons for these perceptions. Children's knowledge of the sources of nutrients, their understanding of the relationship between food and health, and how their perceptions of healthiness relate to their preferences for the foods are also explored. The nutritional implications of food choices made by primary school children on the basis of preference rather than healthiness are examined. One hundred and twenty three children aged between nine and eleven from 14 different primary schools in SouthEast England took part. Using photographs of foods commonly served at school lunches, the children were asked to rank the foods in order of preference and then according to their perceptions of the healthiness of the foods and give their reasons in each case. The rankings were analysed numerically and the Wilcoxon's pairs signed rank test was used to determine the significance of the difference. The qualitative data on the reasons given for the rankings were analysed by assigning them to categories. The children were also asked which foods they would choose for the meal that they would be most likely to eat, and which ones for the meal that they thought would be the most healthy. The nutritional value of the two sets of meals were determined and compared. A student T- test was used to determine the significance of any difference between the two sets of meals.It was found that the children had a clear perception of the healthiness or otherwise of the foods. However, understanding of the relationship between foods or nutrients and health was only occasionally evident, as was the idea of moderation or balance. Some children perceived healthiness as the absence of fat while others saw it in terms of the presence of vitamins. It was also found that there was a strongly inverse relationship between children's perceptions of the healthiness of foods and their preferences for them. It was found that while the foods chosen for the ‘healthy’ meal were chosen least frequently for the ‘preferred’ meal, there was no significant difference between the percentage of energy provided by fat in the two sets of meals. However the ‘preferred’ meals did in fact provide a significantly higher percentage of the energy as starch, as well as containing greater amounts of some micronutrients. In other respects the ‘healthy’ meals were indeed ‘healthier’, in that they provided greater amounts per megajoule of some important nutrients.It was concluded that teaching about food in primary schools needs to focus on helping children of this age make balanced food choices. It was suggested that the ‘tilted plate’ model, adapted to use foods that children frequently eat and enjoy, could be the basis of such teaching. Such a model could also be used to help caterers plan menus and as the basis of co-operation between nutrition educators and caterers.     

Regime dependent determinants of credit default swap spreads

Credit default swap (CDS) spreads display pronounced regime specific behaviour. A Markov switching model of the determinants of changes in the iTraxx Europe indices demonstrates that they are extremely sensitive to stock volatility during periods of CDS market turbulence. But in ordinary market circumstances CDS spreads are more sensitive to stock returns than they are to stock volatility. Equity hedge ratios are three or four times larger during the turbulent period, which explains why previous research on single-regime models finds stock positions to be ineffective hedges for default swaps. Interest rate movements do not affect the financial sector iTraxx indices and they only have a significant effect on the other indices when the spreads are not excessively volatile. Raising interest rates may decrease the probability of credit spreads entering a volatile period.     

Using World Café and drama to explore older people's experience of financial products and services

This paper examines a novel strategy to get older people talking about their financial needs and equity release. A questionnaire was used to identify issues which were then written into a drama on equity release products and bank accounts. This dramatic representation of the issues preceded discussion among older people at a World Café event – a format that involves a series of circulating focus groups where concepts can be discussed in depth and recorded. The drama offered an initial stimulus of alternative and opposing opinions and facilitated conversation about financial products and services which are often considered uninteresting and private. The aim was to record ideas in the discussions that would benefit the production and design of innovative financial products that would meet the needs of people over 50 years. Further, as a technique, the combination of drama, used to stimulate discussion, and the World Café format, to obtain and record consumer opinions, arguably offers innovative options to researchers in other sectors of product or service consumption.     

Financing High Technology Startups in Belgium: An Explorative Study

The results of an explorative study on the financing of 18 high technology Belgian startups are reported. On a counts basis, the most important sources of financing at the startup are the entrepreneurs and the banks, but the sources that provide the largest amounts of funds are the venture capital companies and private investors. Private investors and venture capitalists have a complementary role, with the former investing mostly at the startup and the latter financing the early growth. The role of the government, universities and other companies is limited.     

PCA oversedation: application of Healthcare Failure Mode Effect (HFMEA) Analysis

Hospital systems utilize many varied problem-solving processes to address system improvements and ensure patient safety. The Healthcare Failure Mode Effect Analysis (HFMEA) model is one of these tools and uses a multidisciplinary team to look at processes, diagramming the steps involved to identify potential failure points. The application of the HFMEA model allowed one large health care system to address a complex process by prioritizing proactive change improvements in order to prevent postoperative patient-controlled anesthesia oversedation events. The changes implemented identified 16 failure points with a hazard score of 16 or greater. One year later, the established system HFMEA goal was met: oversedation events were reduced by 50%.