Translation Exposure Hedging Post SFAS No. 52

Translation exposure hedging is frequently said to have begun after firms adopted SFAS No. 8 and assumed to have ceased–or at least decreased–after adoption of SFAS No. 52 due to different treatments of translation gains (losses). Based on proprietary data, this study presents evidence from a small sample of firms which would be predicted to cease hedging translation exposure, but of which the majority did not.
The study focuses on eighteen firms which exclude at least 50% and up to 100% of the translation gains (losses) from the income statement after adopting SFAS No. 52. Of those eighteen firms, only seven ceased hedging. The other eleven firms not only continued hedging translation exposure, but hedged translation exposure of only those subsidiaries whose translation gains (losses) are now excluded from the income statement.
Characteristics which might explain the different decision are investigated: proportion of assets which are nonmonetary; the proportion of net assets located abroad; the geographic dispersion of subsidiaries; and the estimated effect on the balance sheet and income statement of changing from the temporal method to the current rate method of translation.
Univariate test results indicate that the geographic dispersion of die foreign subsidiaries as well as the proportion of net assets located abroad differ significantly between firms which ceased hedging and those which continued hedging after adopting the standard. Weak evidence of differential effects of the change to the current rate method on individual firm income statements and of different composition of assets between the two groups also was found. Multivariate analysis, using a linear probability model as well as a randomization procedure, provided weak results corroborating the significance of the proportion of net foreign assets to consolidated assets in differentiating between firms which ceased hedging and those which continued.     

National science foundation funding in economics and chemistry

Conclusion Despite equivalent success rates, the probability of obtaining an NSF grant is substantially higher for chemists than for economists. The evidence indicates that NSF funds are more scarce for economists and that the quality of funded proposals as measured by institutional affiliation is greater for economists than for chemists. Administrators should be aware that when the supply of funds varies among disciplines, the probability of being funded and the expected value of an award will also vary among departments.     

Nursing career fulfillment: statistics and statements from registered nurses

A state-level survey of registered nurses confirmed national findings and raised new issues. Findings revealed that while nurses love the intrinsic reward of nursing, they report workplace, relationship, and stress issues which contribute to frustration and exhaustion. These issues may prevent registered nurses from giving the nursing care they desire to deliver, hastening preventable retirement and costly turnover decisions.     

Artificial Neural Networks Applied to Ratio Analysis in the Analytical Review Process

Experts claim that artificial neural network (ANN) technology can outperform standard statistical methods when applied to examine actual financial data. Researchers have used ANNs to analyze bankruptcy prediction, bond rating and the going-concern problem. Financial firms have employed ANNs commercially to predict commercial bank failures, detect credit card fraud and verify signatures. For accounting and auditing problems, however, application of ANN technology has been limited. Preliminary experiments tested whether an ANN offered improved performance in recognizing material misstatements during the analytical review process of auditing. Four years of audited financial data from a medium-sized distributor were input as data streams to calibrate the ANN across fifteen financial accounts. Researchers compared a presumed lack of actual errors and certain seeded material errors with signals from the ANN analytical review process to evaluate performance. Results were compared to analyses where financial ratios and regression methods were employed as analytical review techniques. Results tentatively suggest that the ANN method recognized patterns within financial accounts more effectively than did financial ratio and regression methods. ANNs applied as a forecasting tool seem useful for identifying patterns that can indicate potential investigations of a firm's unaudited financial data in the current year.     

Responding to ‘Skill Shortages’: Recruitment and Retention In A High Technology Labour Market

Gordon Causer, who is a Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton, and Carol Jones, who is Senior Lecturer in Employee Relations in the Lancashire Business School, University of Central Lancashire, explore the responses of twenty electronics companies in central Southern England to problems of recruitment and retention of professional engineers employed in research, design and development functions. They argue that organisations might be expected to treat such staff as a long-term resource, subject to processes of careful selection, extensive training and flexible utilisation. In practice these tendencies are modified to a greater or lesser degree by a variety of structural constraints, including the volatile nature of the electronics industry, the disciplinary heterogeneity of its labour force, the funding of research and development activities and the labour market conditions faced by organisations.     

Country Market Sequential Order-of-Entry: A Learning Effects Approach

ABSTRACT

In this article, we identify and describe the sequential order-of-entry problem. The sequential order-of-entry problem arises when, after having identified a desirable set of country markets to enter, firms are unable (because of budgetary constraints), or unwilling (because of possible learning or strategic issues), to enter all at once. The question then arises whether some sequences to entering the desirable set of country markets are better than others? Answering this question is shown to be nontrivial. The article outlines a number of arguments for the existence of superior sequences to entering a set of desirable country markets, and develops normative and dynamic frameworks to aid in the identification and evaluation of sequences.     

HRD involvement in merger and acquisition decisions and strategy development: four organizational portraits

Although the financial and strategic aspects of mergers and acquisitions are well researched, little work has been done on the human resource development implications of this popular topic. The purpose of this case study research project was to explore the timing and scope of HRD involvement in four organizations recently involved in a merger or acquisition, by using three theoretical models as lenses. The results demonstrated that HRD normally was not involved in the initial decision‐making to merge or acquire, even though post‐deal HRD initiatives, particularly related to change management, were perceived as critical indicators of success.