Manufacturing shareholder value: The role of accounting in organizational transformation

This paper explores the role of accounting calculations in constructing shareholder value within the context of organizational transformation in work organization. Using an intensive longitudinal case study (Conglom, a pseudonym), the paper relates innovation and experimentation in new forms of work organization to a drive for shareholder value creation. The priority given to shareholder value creation was articulated through a proliferation of accounting metrics and calculations that intermediated between the strategic preoccupation with securing financial profitability, as demonstrated by the share price, and the operational challenge of squeezing costs and improving margins to boost short-term performance through outsourcing, programme management and divestment. We interpret the discourse of shareholder value creation and the development of related accounting metrics as a hegemonic move which is central to the reassertion of capital – a development that, we contend, is symptomatic of a shift towards a more ‘despotic’ mode of capitalist reproduction [Burawoy, M., (1985). The politics of production. London: Verso], where the whip of the market, allied to notions of possessive individualism, free choice and self-determination, progressively replaces the velvet glove of the corporatist state.     

Private matters

Why do private firms stay private? Empirical evidence on this issue is sparse, as most private firms in the U.S. do not report their financial results. We investigate why private status matters by taking advantage of a unique dataset of large, leveraged private firms with SEC filings. Unlike a number of other studies, we find that neither the existence of growth opportunities, nor the desire of firm founders to diversify, is a principal determinant of the decision whether or not to retain private status. Rather, the existence of private benefits of control appears to serve as the most significant incentive to stay private. Family-controlled firms have significantly lower probabilities of filing for an IPO, while a board structure that grants management relatively more autonomy lowers the probability of an IPO filing as well. Cross-sectional analysis of profitability and ex post performance suggests that while private benefits of control may encourage firms to stay private, they do not have detrimental effects on firm efficiency. In contrast, firms controlled by private equity specialists appear to place a low value on control benefits and are likely to go public as a means of cashing out.     

Sources of influence on award winning research: A note

While great advances have been made because of accounting research, limited understanding exists about the process of producing top-research in accounting and getting it published. This study contributes to a better understanding of the process of producing top quality research in accounting by examining the importance and characteristics of a high value-added literature review. To that end, in this study we examine the literature reviews contained in articles recognized for the Notable Contributions to the Accounting Literature Award of the AAA for the twenty-five year period, 1983 to 2007. Results find that top quality research has a cutting edge timeliness that is characterized by greater reliance on more recently published reference sources and by incorporating a substantial number of working papers. This study also identifies the most influential articles, journals and individuals to Notable Contribution authors, including both accounting and interdisciplinary sources.     

Sepsisleitlinie gibt Orientierung

Diagnostik und Pr?vention der schweren Sepsis - Trotz verbesserter Therapiema?nahmen hat sich an der hohen Letalit?t und Morbidit?t der schweren Sepsis und des septischen Schocks in den letzten 20 Jahren wenig ge?ndert. Noch immer wird die Erkrankung zu sp?t diagnostiziert und ad?quat behandelt. Doch wie lassen sich t?dliche Verl?ufe verhindern?     

WELFARE IN THE NASH EQUILIBRIUM IN EXPORT TAXES UNDER BERTRAND DUOPOLY

In the Eaton and Grossman Quarterly Journal of Economics, 101 (1986), pp. 383–406 model of export taxes under Bertrand duopoly, it is shown that welfare in the Nash equilibrium in export taxes is always higher than welfare under free trade for both countries.     

Factor price equalization? The cointegration approach revisited

Conclusions Absolute factor price equalization across countries is a key prediction of the Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuleson model of international trade, one of the more influential “workhorse” models in economics. Despite its theoretical might, the factor price equalization hypothesis has received surprisingly little empirical support. In an important exception to the rule, Burgman and Geppert (1993) argue that this might be due to the neglect of the non-stationarity of the time series under consideration. And indeed, applying a cointegration approach to (nominal) unit labor costs in six major industrialized countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States), they find evidence of long-run factor price co-movement. This finding can be interpreted as being in line with equalization of factor prices amongst these countries.     

The rise and fall of social partnership in postsocialist Europe: the Commonwealth of Independent States

Traditional trade unions throughout the postsocialist world embraced ‘social partnership’ as a means to secure their institutional survival in a radically changed economic and political environment. The commitment of national governments to social partnership ebbed and flowed through the 1990s, but it was confirmed, at least rhetorically, in Central and Eastern Europe by the prospect and requirements of accession to the European Union. This article explores the fate of social partnership in the ‘other half’ of Europe, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, where social dialogue has largely been abandoned and trade unions alternatively marginalised or subordinated to the state apparatus.