CASE STUDY: US ARMY UTILITY HELICOPTER FLEET MODERNIZATION ANALYSIS

The US Army has relied heavily on helicopter support for more than 30 years. These aircraft have been used for a variety of purposes, with the most widely identified category being the utility, or general-purpose transport, mission area. Currently, the US Army is confronting the problem of managing an aging equipment fleet (its helicopters) in the face of significant budgetary constraints, a very large-scale fleet replacement problem. By the nature of its business, the US Army is not working toward a desired profit margin, but it must maintain a level of military capability to meet its national defense obligations. The US Army recently commissioned the Utility Helicopter Fleet Modernization Analysis to determine the most cost and operationally effective strategy for fleet replacement or modernization. This case study presents a synopsis of how multi-criteria decision analysis techniques were integrated with total cost of ownership considerations to develop a multi-billion dollar equipment modernization strategy, a strategy that is being implemented by the US Army today.     

Female Managers in Taiwan: Opportunities and Barriers in Changing Times

Women workers' chances of becoming managers, and their experiences once promoted to that level, are increasingly important in Taiwan, a region that is in the throes of socio- economic and legal change. While it is clear that there are proportionally more male than female managers in Taiwan, little systematic research has been undertaken to investigate the reasons for this under-representation of women. The authors' exploratory study suggests that the work–family conflict and Taiwanese cultural values contribute to the barriers female employees encounter in their climb up the organizational hierarchy and may lead to the depression of their career ambitions; however, a proportion of the female managers interviewed felt that their promotional opportunities and their experiences as managers had improved significantly in their generation. The authors make suggestions to guide future research on women managers in Taiwan.     

Consequences and Institutional Determinants of Unregulated Corporate Financial Statements: Evidence from Embedded Value Reporting

I analyze Embedded Value (EV) reporting by firms with life insurance operations to assess the impact of unregulated financial reporting on transparency and to examine the institutional characteristics that promote unregulated reporting. Under EV accounting, the present value of future cash flows from in‐force contracts is included in shareholders’ equity, and profit is calculated as the change in equity between two periods. In contrast to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), this approach produces higher shareholder's equity and recognizes income at contract inception. I find firms that adopt EV reporting exhibit a decline in information asymmetry, with the decline increasing as EV reporting evolves to address methodological deficiencies and to permit more comparability across firms. The decrease in information asymmetry is contingent on providing an audit certification, and larger for firms that commit to providing EV reports. Moreover, I document that EV reporting is more widespread in countries with more hostile takeovers, managers that do not avoid volatile income measures, regulators that are less likely to intervene in the product market, and analysts that believe EV disclosure increases the value of their information intermediation function.