The professional background of company law pressure groups

In a recent article, Jones (1995) notes that witnesses before the nineteenthcentury government committees played a pivotal role in the initiation of company accounting recommendations and, ultimately, in subsequent legislation. However, very little is known about these witnesses, particularly in relation to their professional occupations/affiliations and the degree to which different professions were represented before various parliamentary committees. Research on these questions will improve our knowledge and understanding of nineteenth-century influences on company law reform. This preliminary study indicates that the representation of different professional groups varied between committees. Furthermore, certain professions and interest groups tended to be better represented than others throughout the nineteenth century. Finally, accounting recommendations of witnesses appeared to vary across different professions.     

Minimum Wage Regulation under Devolution in Northern Ireland

This paper assesses the development and functioning of regional minimum wage regulation in Northern Ireland in the interwar period under a federal form of devolution. Unlike current devolution arrangements in Scotland and Wales, this gave the Stormont Parliament powers over employment and minimum wage regulation. Northern Ireland Trade Boards were set up by the Ulster Unionist Government under the Trade Boards (Northern Ireland) Act 1923 and functioned along the same lines as those in Great Britain. Uniquely in the UK in this period, employer opposition resulted in the main Trade Board in the Irish Linen Industry being replaced by voluntary collective bargaining machinery. About one-quarter of employees were covered by minimum wage regulation, including two-thirds of females in Belfast, keeping a protective floor under low pay.     

Valuation uncertainty,home and host market uncertainty,and cross-border seasoned equity offerings

This study examines how market timing can affect host market reaction to cross-border seasoned equity offerings (SEOs), an event generally viewed unfavorably by investors. We assume that firms engage in market timing in response to valuation uncertainty (VU), home market uncertainty (HMU) and/or host market uncertainty (HSU), and that raising capital abroad faces higher scrutiny costs and familiarity bias from host market investors. We conjecture that timing strategies provide signals that vary in strength to host market investors and that dual-timing strategies may strengthen an existing signal. Our hypotheses are tested on a sample of 190 cross-border SEOs that were issued on the U.S. stock market between 1990 and 2017 by firms from 29 countries. Using event study methodology, we find that market timing based on VU is negatively related to host market valuation and that a dual-timing strategy with HMU or HSU generally produces a stronger signal. Our results have practical relevance for stock markets that suffer from high uncertainty; we estimate that a high VU firm with a $1 billion valuation suffers a drop of $31.3 million in market valuation during a high host market uncertainty (high HSU) compared with low host market uncertainty (low HSU).     

A practical but theory-based framework for selecting cross-cultural training methods

Increased internationalization in the economic, political, and social arenas has led to greater interpersonal cross-cultural contact. Because much of this contact has not been successful, cross-cultural training has been proposed by many scholars as a means of facilitating more effective interaction. However, most firms do not utilize cross-cultural training. The cross-cultural training framework proposed in this article is based on both theory and a review of the cross-cultural training literature. The contingency framework proposed provides a practical guide for determining the method and rigor of cross-cultural training most effective in various circumstances.     

The power of quality models: The example of the SIQ model for performance excellence

Most contemporary total quality management (TQM) practice is influenced, directly or indirectly, by structured, acontextual and standardized quality models. The present paper focuses on the strategic introduction of one such model, namely the Swedish Institute for Quality (SIQ) model for performance excellence, in a Swedish public-sector organization, which we refer to as ‘the Authority.’ We take our theoretical stance from Foucault's concept of ‘power/knowledge.’ In describing the case, we focus on the management team of one of the Authority's ten regions. Our analysis shows the members of the management team using the SIQ model to objectify both the organization and themselves as managers. However, contrary to many critical or managerial accounts, the SIQ model was not totalizing: management subjectivities changed but were not entirely reconstituted, and some resistance to them was generated by the members of the management team, in their role as professionals.     

House Prices, Fundamentals and Bubbles

Abstract:  This paper studies actual (real) house prices relative to fundamental (real) house values. Such a focus is warranted since housing constitutes a large fraction of most household portfolios, and its characteristics are such that, in contrast to what prevails in financial markets, arbitrage will be limited and hence correction toward 'true' value is likely to be a prolonged process. Using UK data and a time-varying present value approach, our results preclude the existence of an explosive rational bubble due to non-fundamental factors. We further find that intrinsic bubbles have an important role to play in determining actual house prices although price dynamics appear to impact, particularly in periods of strong deviation from fundamental value. Price dynamics are found to be driven by momentum behaviour.     

Professional service quality A step beyond other services?

The management and measurement of professional service quality is particularly problematic. To enable managers of legal practices to improve service quality they must understand the service attributes their clients consider important. Drawing on a series of focus groups conducted in the UK, this study provides insights into the assessment of legal services by commercial and corporate clients. A review of literatures pertaining to the evaluation of professional service quality, the concepts of quality and value, and dimensions relating to outcome and process is presented. The results of a series of focus groups are considered in the context of continuing research.