Segmental Disclosure Practice: Thirteen Years On

In an age of financial disclosure directed by professional standards, the changes in practice voluntarily undertaken by companies are sometimes difficult to detect. By focusing on a period prior to the introduction of SSAP 25, the segmental disclosure issue offers an opportunity to consider whether practice has voluntarily changed. An examination of the extent and quality of segmental disclosure, for a specific group of companies over an extended period, offers an indication of the need for a standard or further regulation. If it can be demonstrated that disclosure practice has improved under a primarily self-regulatory framework, the need for a standard like SSAP 25 may be questioned. The segmental disclosure practices of the same group of seventy companies are compared for the reporting years 1975–6 and 1988–9. Whilst an underlying improvement in respect to business activity disclosure is revealed, the same cannot be claimed for geographic segmental disclosure. Not only has the number of companies reporting profit by geographic segment declined but also the consistency with other aspects of the annual report has reduced.     

Volume and skewness in international equity markets

We examine the relation between trading volume and skewness in 11 international stock markets using daily and monthly data from January 1980 to August 2004. We construct single equation and VAR models of the relation between the first three moments of market returns and trading volumes. Our results show hitherto unrecognised channels of influence, and support the investor heterogeneity approach to explaining return asymmetries.     

The effect of limits in retail advertisements: A reactance theory perspective

It is not uncommon for retailers to impose limits (e.g., “limit one per customer”) on advertised products. The attitudinal and behavioral effects of such advertised limits have been largely unexplored. The present research uses psychological reactance theory to generate insight into the effects of advertised limits. It was found that limits are both capable of attracting and repelling consumers depending upon the severity of the limit. In the experimental context that was used, age and income were found to be positively related to the effectiveness of limits.     

Is the Market Perceived to be Civilizing or Destructive? Scientists’ Universalism Values and Their Attitudes Towards Patents

Journal of Business Ethics - Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting is becoming mainstream, yet there is limited research on whether and how CSR reports communicate value relevant...     

Labor market segmentation and relative black/white teenage birth rates

Teenage mothers typically have lower educational attainment than other women. Most observers have argued that this is a major reason for their greater risk of poverty. This article takes the opposite view: that circumstances associated with poverty contribute to a greater likelihood of teenage childbearing. In particular, poor educational quality and the chances of secondary sector employment are more common for black women, regardless of their age at first birth. Hence the payoffs to education may be quite low for these women, which may be the reason for early motherhood. This argument is presented in terms of segmented labor market theory. Data to support it is presented from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Other common explanations of teenage motherhood are critiqued.     

Context‐bound configurations of corporate HR functions in multinational corporations

Considerable attention has focused on how multinational corporations (MNCs) deal with the simultaneous pressures of globalization and localization when it comes to human resource management (HRM). HR function activities in this process, however, have received less focus. The study presented here identifies configurations of the corporate HR function based on international HRM (IHRM) structures, exploring how issues of interdependency shape corporate HR roles. The study is based on 248 interviews in 16 MNCs based in 19 countries. The findings are applied to develop a contextually based framework outlining the main corporate HR function configurations in MNCs, including new insights into methods of IHRM practice design. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Issue Information

The international human resource management (IHRM) field naturally lends itself to spotlighting the importance of internal and external organizational contexts to help understand how to manage employees in organizations effectively. However, we argue that the range of opportunities that the field creates to understand this context has not yet been fully embraced by IHRM scholars. To address this gap, this special issue explores: (a) the variety of approaches to theorizing how contexts promote or constrain organizational practice; and (b) relevant methodologies that might allow us to unearth novel context-dependent theory in international HRM. We propose a distinction between variable-oriented theorizing (that explains the effects of internal and external contexts on the phenomena under study) and context-dependent theorizing (that requires researchers become intimately familiar with the setting under study to understand context as a shaper of meaning). This editorial also highlights how the articles in the special issue contribute to stimulating further context-dependent IHRM research.