Brand value accounting: an international comparison of perceived managerial implications

Data concerned with the managerial implications of brand value accounting were collected from accountants and marketing managers working in strongly branded companies in New Zealand (N.Z.), the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the United States (U.S.). Since the external reporting climate in the U.S. prohibits the inclusion of brand value as a separate asset in the published balance sheet, it was anticipated that U.S. managers would be the least positively disposed to the potential of beneficial managerial implications deriving from brand valuation. Contrary to this expectation, managers in the U.K are the least positively disposed to potential managerial implications associated with brand value accounting. This result is particularly interesting as brand value accounting has commanded considerable attention from the U.K. accounting profession since the late 1980s when several large U.K. companies elected to capitalize brand values in their external financial statements. In addition to the international differences noted, the degree of commonality of findings across the three countries is also noteworthy. The data reported provide strong support for the view that there is considerable potential for positive managerial implications from brand value accounting.     

AN ECONOMICALLY LIBERAL EUROPEAN UNION WILL NOT BE DELIVERED BY THE EU REFORM TREATY

There is little doubt that the EU's Reform Treaty is a very substantial document with significant implications for business and the economy. Unfortunately, there is little in the Treaty that would appear to promote liberal economic policies. On the contrary, there are at least two developments that should cause concern. The first is the Charter of Fundamental Rights which will probably have significant, anti-liberal, implications for Britain's labour market laws. And the second is the removal of 'free and undistorted competition' from the list of the EU's objectives in the main body of the Treaty.     

The profitability of vertical integration

This paper examines the profitability of vertical integration using alternate indices of vertical integration Our results suggest that the profitability-vertical integration relation is highly sensitive to the specification of the vertical integration measure used.     

Communication of Private Information and the Valuation of Initial Public Offerings in Singapore

This study examines a sample of 108 initial public offerings in Singapore between 1987 and 1993, and documents the effects of four channels of entrepreneurial communication, that is, retained ownership, audited report, auditor choice and underwriter choice on the valuation of new issues. Our results indicate that retained ownership and book value of equity are significantly and positively associated with the valuation of initial public offerings in Singapore. Underwriter choice and auditor choice are not significant in explaining the valuation of initial public offerings. Issues listed on the Main Board are valued higher than those on Sesdaq (Stock Exchange of Singapore Dealing and Automated Quotation). Firms choosing the auction system are valued higher than those choosing the fixed system.
This paper provides evidence on the valuation of new issues in an emerging market in the Asia-Pacific region. The results are of interest to investors, investment bankers and companies seeking a listing on the Singapore Stock Exchange. We provide some insights on how new issues in the Singapore market are valued.     

Temporary immigration visas

This paper deals with recent proposals concerning temporary immigration visas as a means to combat the problem of illegal immigration. We set up a simple two-period model of international migration between a poor South and a rich North with temporary visas issued for one period. Because of capital market imperfections, immigrants from the South face additional capital costs when financing the visa fee. In this model, we find that temporary visas can improve welfare in the North if capital costs of the immigrants are sufficiently low. For high capital costs, however, a welfare reduction cannot be ruled out. We extend the model to the case of heterogeneous immigrants and asymmetric information. In this setting, we show that the government in the North may have an incentive to issue temporary visas for those with low capital costs and to tolerate illegal immigration of the others.     

Gender gaps across the earnings distribution for full-time employees in Britain: Allowing for sample selection

This paper investigates gender differences across the log wage distributions of British employees working full-time in 2005. The raw gender wage gap shows a tendency to increase across the distribution with a glass ceiling effect indicated. A strong relationship between high skilled, white-collar occupations and carrying out managerial duties with the glass ceiling effect is indicated in the data. After allowing for positive selection into full-time employment by British women, a substantially larger gender earning gap is found: the selection corrected gender wage gap is close to twice the raw gap across most of the earnings distribution. This selection corrected gap is found to be predominantly related to women receiving lower rewards for their characteristics than men. Indeed, the results suggest the gender earnings gap would all but disappear across the earnings distribution if women working full-time received the same returns to their characteristics as men working full-time in Britain do.     

Determinants of tender offer post-acquisition financial performance

The present study extends previous research efforts and examines relationships between commonly discussed strategic acquisition factors and long-term financial performance measures of acquiring firms. The factors of interest include relative size, previous acquisition experience, organizational age, industry commonality, contested versus uncontested acquisitions, and percentage of stock acquired. The financial performance measures include both accounting and capital market data for the 4-year period preceding acquisition activity and the 4-year period following such activity. The study presents bivariate and multivariate analyses for 42 industrial manufacturing firms that engaged in the tender offer form of acquisition. The findings indicate that, on the average, post-acquisition financial performance improved significantly for organizations that had previous acquisition experience, acquired a higher percentage of a target, or were older. Post-acquisition performance decreased significantly for acquiring firms when target firms contested an acquisition.