Implementation Guidance for Standards and Revenue Trend in Aggressive Reporting

This study examines the interactive effect of including the implementation guidance in accounting standards (with and without indicators) and different reported revenue trends (increasing, decreasing, and volatile) in aggressive reporting. For this purpose, we adopt a 2 × 3 between-subjects experiment. Aggressive reporting is measured by managers' perception of control and judgment regarding revenue recognition. The results of this experiment indicate that including the implementation guidance can constrain managers' revenue recognition judgments. The results show that for decreasing revenue trends, the inclusion of indicators for implementation does not influences managers' judgments regarding revenue recognition. For increasing revenue trends, the inclusion of guidance indicators matters in that the managers' judgments regarding revenue recognition are more aggressive in conditions without indicators than in conditions with indicators. The findings of this study extend the literature on implementation guidance in accounting standards and aggressive reporting.     

Flexibility in cash-flow classification under IFRS: determinants and consequences

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) allow managers flexibility in classifying interest paid, interest received, and dividends received within operating, investing, or financing activities within the statement of cash flows. In contrast, U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) requires these items to be classified as operating cash flows (OCF). Studying IFRS-reporting firms in 13 European countries, we document firms’ cash-flow classification choices vary, with about 76, 60, and 57% of our sample classifying interest paid, interest received, and dividends received, respectively, in OCF. Reported OCF under IFRS tends to exceed what would be reported under U.S. GAAP. We find the main determinants of OCF-enhancing classification choices are capital market incentives and other firm characteristics, including greater likelihood of financial distress, higher leverage, and accessing equity markets more frequently. In analyzing the consequences of reporting flexibility, we find some evidence that the market’s assessment of the persistence of operating cash flows and accruals varies with the firm’s classification choices and the results of certain OCF prediction models are sensitive to classification choices.     

Exiting supranational unions and the corresponding impact on tourism: Some insights from a rejoinder to Brexit

The consequences of countries withdrawing from supranational unions have received growing attention. Most recently, the majority of British citizens have voted to exit the European Union (Brexit), which has resulted in the mushrooming of reports on its potential impact in myriad respects. This paper uses Brexit as a case study to examine the impact of exiting a supranational union on the tourism industry. In particular, this paper consolidates the plethora of views on the impact of Brexit on tourism and uses the findings to propose a model that explains the consequences of exiting a supranational union for tourism from the national, regional, and global travellers’ perspective.     

Progress in tourism and destination wellbeing research

A proliferation of research in recent years has revealed a myriad of relationships between tourism and the concept of wellbeing. These include health benefits of visiting tourist destinations, a product focus on wellness and maintaining good health. Broader interpretations emphasize the complex ways in which tourism can influence the emotional, psychological, cognitive and spiritual dimensions of wellbeing, both for tourists and for destination communities. This study reflects an emerging paradigm shift that incorporates a deeper appreciation of the benefits derived at the destination level from a focus on health and wellbeing. The study highlights three key perspectives, namely the tourist, the destination community and the destination itself. The study concludes that research in this area is critical to the future development, management and marketing of sustainable and competitive destinations with the wellbeing of tourists, their destination host communities, and the overall destination experience, critical to their ultimate success.     

Improving Leadership Skills in Physicians: A 6‐Month Retrospective Study

The complex medical environment of today calls for physicians to have an array of leadership skills in addition to a thorough knowledge of their specific practice areas. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) Robert C. Cefalo National Leadership Institute is a 3.5‐day intensive leadership development course targeted to physician leaders. A group of 37 physicians completed the ACOG National Leadership Institute in spring of 2013. At course completion and 6‐month postcourse, participants were asked to complete a retrospective pre‐ and posttest of perceived skill levels in 10 targeted competency areas. Course completion and 6‐month postcourse scores indicated statistically significant improvements in scores on all 10 competency areas, which was supported by a Wilcoxon signed‐rank test of median score difference. Qualitative data gathered at the 6‐month postcourse survey provide examples of how participants had applied their skills. The data presented in the current study suggested that intensive, “short‐burst,” experiential leadership training is an effective approach for leadership skills development in physicians.     

How should firms carry out technological diversification to improve their performance? An analysis of patenting of Korean firms

This research aims to analyze how a firm's technological diversification strategies influence its financial performances, in terms of ‘technological diversification’ in broad technology sectors and ‘technological concentration’ on its own core technology, especially in the case of Korean large firms. The data used in the analysis were panel data encompassing the years between 1990 and 2006, which linked Korean firms’ patent information registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office to the financial data of those firms collected from Korea Investors Service, Inc. (Kis-Value). For the estimation of the panel data, a fixed effect model, which considers the individual firms’ own effect on the financial performance, was used. Tobin's q was used as a dependent variable representing firm performance, while ‘broad technology diversity’ and ‘core technology diversity’ were used as the focal explanatory variables. The results show that a firm seeking to have more technological assets should invest in a broad technological diversification strategy in its search for new business opportunities; it should likewise concentrate on the core technology in order to maintain its financial performance.     

Volatile Environments and Interfirm Governance: Does Trust Matter?

Purpose: Manufacturers in volatile environments should rely on governance mechanisms to reduce the risks inherent in those environments. However, it remains to be determined which governance mechanism a given manufacturer will develop in volatile environments in order to manage the relationship with its supplier. The principal objective of this study is to explain circumstances in which different governance mechanisms function under volatile environmental conditions.

Methodology: The empirical test was conducted with manufacturing companies in the context of manufacturer-supplier relationships. Construct measures were based on existing measures and previous research. Measurement reliability and validity were established using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and an overall measurement model was assessed with structural equation modeling using LISREL 8.54.

Findings: The results of this study showed that manufacturers should consider the level of trust they bestow on their suppliers to select an appropriate governance mechanism to deal with environmental volatility. When a manufacturer does not trust its supplier under conditions of environmental volatility, the manufacturer should consider adopting unilateral governance. If a manufacturer trusts its supplier, it should consider bilateral governance to respond in a timely manner to changes in the resource market.

Contribution: This study introduced trust to explain governance mechanisms in an uncertain environment and showed that interorganizational trust is a condition for influencing a manufacturer's propensity toward a specific governance mechanism.     

Collective Leadership,Career Concern,and the Housing Market in China: The Role of Standing Committees

Despite an emerging literature on political determinants of economic performance, little is known about whether standing committees of the Communist Party, an institution of collective leadership, matter for economic development. Using Chinese provincial‐level panel data, we find that a higher ratio of new members in the standing committee of the local Communist Party is correlated with a higher housing sales/gross domestic product (GDP) ratio. Moreover, more new members in the standing committee are also associated with a lower level of GDP per capita and a lower manufacturing output growth rate. The results on the size of the real estate sector are robust to dealing with the endogeneity of the ratio of new standing committee members. Our findings suggest that career incentives of party leadership affected real estate development at the expense of manufacturing growth in the locality, and that the structure of collective leadership has important economic consequences.