Top management tournament incentives and credit ratings

Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting - This paper investigates whether the current level of tournament incentives for top executives is related to the firm’s future credit rating....     

To govern is to foresee: An exploratory study into the relationship between futures research and strategy and policy processes at Dutch ministries

The Dutch government has to operate in an extremely complex environment with various actors who have different interests, in a time that can be considered highly uncertain. Although this makes the usefulness of and need for futures research evident, the question remains how the Dutch government uses futures research in its strategy and policy formation process. This study indicates that the use of futures research by Dutch government ministries has evolved over time, although the overwhelming importance of the short term, the difficult structural organization of futures research and a relative lack of relevant expertise at the ministries limit the impact of futures research on strategy and policy.     

Returns Before and After Tax Using Sum - of- Years -Digits Depreciation

The sum-of-the-years (SYD) depreciation method complicates the relationship between the before- and after-tax returns. This paper explains the mechanics of the SYD method and develops a procedure for analyzing its influence on the overall levels of profitability. The computer is used in a parametric analysis culminating in a series of curves that can simplify the calculations in practice. In these curves, returns are made non-dimensional by dividing by the investment, the ratio being the capital recovery factor (CRF).     

Do women react differently to incentives? Evidence from experimental data and payroll records

We consider the response to incentives as an explanation for observed productivity differences within a firm that paid its workers piece rates. We provide a framework within which the observed productivity differences can be decomposed into two parts: One due to differences in ability and the other due to differences in the response to incentives. We apply this decomposition to male and female workers from a tree-planting firm in British Columbia, Canada. Our evidence (both experimental and nonexperimental) suggests that there was no difference in the reaction to incentives between male and female planters. The productivity differential male planters enjoyed arose because of differences in ability, interpreted as strength in our application.     

Networks, Knowledge and Power: Decision Making, Politics and the Process of Innovation

This paper examines the highly political nature of innovation appropriation processes. The central focus is on the role of networks, networking, and knowledge in these processes. The data presented is drawn from two case study companies, both of which were implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. While formal, hierarchical authority was found to be an important contextual factor, shaping the appropriation processes examined, it was found that such authority was not automatically translatable into actual power. In terms of knowledge and networks, the paper concludes that they were inextricably inter-related, largely because the typically tacit nature of much relevant knowledge required the development of networks to access and utilize it. The paper further concluded that the use of both networks, and knowledge in the innovation appropriation processes examined had a dual character. They could not only provide access to relevant knowledge and artefacts, but could also be used as political tools in support of particular interests.     

Compound Conflicts of Interest in the US Proxy System

The current proxy voting system in the United States has become the subject of considerable controversy. Because institutional investment managers have the authority to vote their clients’ proxies, they have a fiduciary obligation to those clients. Frequently, in an attempt to fulfill that obligation, these institutional investors employ proxy advisory services to manage the thousands of votes they must cast. However, many proxy advisory services have conflicts of interest that inhibit their utility to those seeking to discharge their fiduciary duties. In this article, we describe the current proxy advisory network as an example of how current notions of conflicts of interest fall short when explaining the behavior of an interconnected set of market players whose remit is to act in the best interests of their investors. We discuss what participants in this system should do to bring transparency and accuracy to the proxy advice industry.