The Stewardship Role of Analyst Forecasts,and Discretionary Versus Non-discretionary Accruals

We examine the interaction between discretionary and non-discretionary accruals in a stewardship setting. Contracting includes multiple rounds of renegotiation based on contractible accounting information and non-contractible but more timely non-accounting information. We show that accounting regulation aimed at increasing earnings quality from a valuation perspective (earnings persistence) may have a significant impact on how firms rationally respond in terms of allowing accrual discretion in order to alleviate the impact on the stewardship role of earnings. Increasing the precision of more timely non-accounting information (analyst earnings forecasts) increases the ex ante value of the firm and reduces costly earnings management. There is an optimal level of reversible non-discretionary accrual noise introduced through revenue recognition policies. Tight rules-based accounting regulation, as opposed to leaving firms more choice over non-discretionary accrual policies, may lead firms to rationally respond by inducing costly earnings management. More generally, regulating both earnings persistence and the tightness of admissible auditing policies may not result in less equilibrium earnings management.     

More than lip service: linking the intensity of empowerment initiatives to individual well-being and performance

We conceptualize empowerment initiatives as varying in terms of intensity – or the degree to which the intervention is rhetorical (aiming to influence employees' sense of control at work, what we refer to as surface empowerment) as opposed to actual (aiming to influence the actual degree of employee job authority, what we refer to as deep empowerment). We then test the effects of rhetorical vs. actual empowerment interventions on employee well-being and performance, as well as the degree to which self-efficacy mediates these effects on the basis of a simulation-based experiment. Results indicate that although both surface and deep empowerment initiatives have beneficial effects on individual well-being, only the latter results in performance increase. We also find that self-efficacy fully mediates the association between surface empowerment (as compared with non-empowerment) and well-being, but only partially mediates the association between deep empowerment (as compared with non-empowerment) and well-being.     

Neo-pluralism as a theoretical framework for understanding HRM in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper discusses the 'social' nature of employment management problems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). 'Applied' Western HRM is largely based on unitarist conceptions of organizational reality. Where conceptions suggest a 'stakeholder' perspective, they tend to follow orthodox formulations of pluralism. In that regard, notions of 'stakeholding' refer to the divergent internal organizational interests (mainly economic) of labour and management. In the SSA context, however, the broader social and moral issues of the wider community have a decisive influence on the employment relationship. And internal employment relations structures, such as trade unions, do not constitute the main representative channels for employee grievances. Consequently, established Western employment frames of reference do not represent suitable theoretical frameworks for analysing all the relevant social factors that influence the SSA employment relationship. This paper proposes a modified version of Ackers' (2002) 'neo-pluralist' theoretical framework as the basis for understanding and resolving some of issues involved in HRM in SSA. From this analysis, it proposes a model of HRM that attempts to institutionalize some elements of the 'African social system' into formal HRM policies and strategies.     

四步减少供应商风险

那些依靠供应商提供商品或服务的公司总是面临着由此而带来的财务风险.在经济环境艰难的时候,总有一些供应商要走向破产,在他们无力偿还债务的同时,金融机构又拒绝为他们提供每日运营所需的短期贷款.当企业走到快要山穷水尽的时候,他们会被迫不惜以降低产品质量和延长交付时间为代价来削减成本,而当企业这样做的时候,破产也就离他们不远了...     

Commodity Taxes, Wage Determination, and Profits

We examine the effects of two different types of commodity taxation, specific and ad valorem, on wages and profits. We analyze two models of wage determination, one with efficiency wage setting and one with union-firm bargaining. In the former, a (locally) revenue-neutral shift from specific to ad valorem taxation leads to an increase in both employment and wages and a reduction in profitability. In the latter, the effect on wages and profits may be reversed: predominantly ad valorem taxation raises employment but lowers wages, and under certain circumstances, the net effect is an increase in profits.     

Competitive supply behavior when price information is fuzzy

The theory of fuzzy sets is applied to the output decisions of a price-taking firm facing imprecise information about expected future prices. Accepting risk resulting from the randomness of prices, the manager is interested in expected profits only. Since the set of possible expected-price vectors is fuzzy, a suitable defuzzification strategy is defined in analogy to the pessimism-optimism index proposed by L. Hurwicz. It depends on the manager's willingness to accept surprises resulting from a deviation of the true expected prices from the values that guided output decisions. Despite a linear cost function, well specified solutions to the optimization problem are possible without resorting to capacity constraints.     

2010：跨国企业高管下课之年

如果只是表现欠佳,许多董事会没有轻易地更换公司领袖。尽管各个产业的销售增长都十分疲软,在2010年的前9个月里,列入标准普尔500指数的公司当中还是只有34家任命了新的常任首席执行官。从高层更迭的速度来说,这已经是自2004年以来的最低水平了。正是在2004年,SpencerStuart猎头公司才开始跟踪这方面的数据。