A model of historical development and future trends of Italian cuisine in America

This study investigated both the historical development and future trends of restaurant cuisine in America. Italian cuisine is used as the basis of a prediction model. The study identifies the historical factors in menu trends in Italian–American cuisine; the factors that will influence culinary trends in the future, and whether the results can be applied to the development of a prediction model that will predict how restaurant cuisine in America may develop. This study used both qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (online survey) methods. The growing popularity of Italian cuisine in the United States will continue to shape the evolution of America's restaurant cuisine.     

Repentance and Continuous Improvement: Ethical Implications for the Modern Leader

Although leadership of organizations rarely is discussed in terms of the religious construct of repentance, we propose that repentance and continuous improvement are closely related ideas that profoundly impact individuals and organizations. We identify six parallels between repentance and continuous improvement and then show how these parallels apply to the fundamental principles associated with highly regarded leadership perspectives. We conclude by identifying five contributions of the article to the management literature.     

Model misspecification,Bayesian versus credibility estimation,and Gibbs posteriors

ABSTRACT

In the context of predicting future claims, a fully Bayesian analysis – one that specifies a statistical model, prior distribution, and updates using Bayes's formula – is often viewed as the gold-standard, while Bühlmann's credibility estimator serves as a simple approximation. But those desirable properties that give the Bayesian solution its elevated status depend critically on the posited model being correctly specified. Here we investigate the asymptotic behavior of Bayesian posterior distributions under a misspecified model, and our conclusion is that misspecification bias generally has damaging effects that can lead to inaccurate inference and prediction. The credibility estimator, on the other hand, is not sensitive at all to model misspecification, giving it an advantage over the Bayesian solution in those practically relevant cases where the model is uncertain. This begs the question: does robustness to model misspecification require that we abandon uncertainty quantification based on a posterior distribution? Our answer to this question is No, and we offer an alternative Gibbs posterior construction. Furthermore, we argue that this Gibbs perspective provides a new characterization of Bühlmann's credibility estimator.     

Fair value accounting: Current practice and perspectives for future research

A fundamental issue debated in the accounting literature centres on the appropriate basis for measuring firms’ assets and liabilities. During the last several decades, scholars have generated a growing body of important insights about the use of the fair value measurement attribute in financial reports around the globe. In this paper, we provide an overview of the institutional background of fair value accounting and the associated accounting standards that prescribe the use of fair value measurements under International Financial Reporting Standards and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the US. We discuss and document the extent to which firms across different industries and accounting regimes recognize and disclose in their financial reports assets and liabilities measured at fair value and we reflect on aspects of the fair value accounting literature. In doing this, we identify several areas in which additional research can further our understanding of fair value measurements and disclosures.     

State ownership of Chinese firms and their outward foreign direct investment: Political and economic contingencies

The extant literature offers inconsistent predictions and conflicting evidence regarding the relationship between state ownership and the internationalization of emerging market firms (EMFs). Drawing on institutional theory, we examine the moderating roles of political and economic institutions at the subnational and national levels in the link between state ownership and EMFs’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Based on a sample of 1421 OFDI projects involving 286 Chinese listed firms in 115 host countries between 2003 and 2016, we find that state ownership can scale up OFDI when Chinese firms are headquartered in subnational regions with high institutional development or low economic development, or when political relationships between home and host countries are amicable or market growth in a host country is slow; otherwise, state ownership hinders OFDI. These findings offer new insights into the relationship between state ownership and the internationalization of EMFs.

     

理智的梦想家——专访青岛区宝马掌门人余国超

余国超，这位能讲一口流利汉语和英文的印尼籍华侨，是青岛中达燕宝汽车销售有限公司的新任老总。因为刚来不久，他的办公室还显得过于简洁，但是数件带有浓郁印尼风情的工艺品，却很吸引眼球。     

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE HARVEST OPERATION USING SYSTEMS SIMULATION

A simple model of the cereal harvest operation was constructed for the Wimmera region of Victoria. The model was used to investigate factors influential in determining the harvesting costs of a machinery system over a period of years. An evaluation of alternative machinery systems was also conducted using the model. The superiority of systems simulation over static analysis was demonstrated by using the model to incorporate stochastic variables and to handle the dynamic nature of the harvest operation. In addition, the model output was shown to provide more information for decision makers than had resulted from previous Australian studies. It was concluded that systems simulation is an appropriate technique for investigating farm management machinery selection problems.     

Street markets as tourist attractions—Victoria Market,Auckland, New Zealand

The paper reports findings from a qualitative study of 25 respondents visiting Victoria Market, New Zealand as to their motives for visiting a market, and their perceptions of this specific market. Open‐ended questioning based on semi‐structured conversation created data analysed using the neural network program CATPAC. The findings note three forms of shopping, the role of cultural components in the market and an appreciation of the market's colourful ambience. However, visitors from Europe still tended to look for value for money when buying objects and had concerns over perceived ‘authenticity’ while Asian shoppers tended to value more the overall ambience. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.