Public perception of scientific uncertainty in relation to food hazards

The research reported here aims to understand how people react to statements expressing risk uncertainty information in the context of a commonly experienced potential hazard, food related risks. Public perception of seriousness of risk for themselves, and for other people was examined for different types of uncertainty, for each of five different food hazards. The results indicated that participants responded to the different types of uncertainty in a uniform way, suggesting that perception of risk associated with uncertainty is not affected by the 'type' of uncertainty. The results further indicated that the seriousness of risk, in the presence of statements of uncertainty, was perceived to be greater for pesticides and genetic modification compared to BSE, high fat diets and Salmonella . It was argued that this could be due to the perceptions of low personal control, and high societal responsibility to protect people and societal control over exposure to the potential risks of pesticides and genetic modification. Under circumstances where people feel they have little personal control over their exposure to a particular hazard, and those social institutions that are perceived to be in control of protecting the public indicate that there is uncertainty associated with risk estimates, the hazard may appear to be 'out of control', which is associated with a perception of serious risk.     

The Information Contained in Reconciliations to Earnings Based on US Accounting Principles By Non-US Companies

To improve comparability of financial statements across countries, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires non-US registrants to either issue financial statements based on US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or provide in their footnotes a reconciliation of their foreign accounts to their US GAAP counterparts. The New York Stock Exchange has requested the elimination of this requirement on the basis that it serves as a barrier to non-US companies that desire to enter the US market. The SEC maintains that the reconciliations provide important information to investors when assessing the value of a company's stock. This study investigates the information content claim made by the SEC. An event study methodology is utilised that measures the stock price reaction within a short window surrounding the SEC filing date of the firm's 20-F (analogous to the 10-K for US firms). A significantly positive correlation is documented between the stock price reaction and the change in the aggregate reconciliation. This result implies that US GAAP disclosures provide information to the market when the 20-F arrives at the SEC.     

The Effect of Information Systems on Honesty in Managerial Reporting: A Behavioral Perspective*

This study examines the behavioral impact of an information system, and how that impact varies with the information system's precision, in an internal reporting environment. We propose that a manager's reporting decisions are affected by his or her trade‐off of the benefits of appearing honest against the benefits of misrepresentation. The information system affects the manager's trade‐off by improving the owner's ability to make an inference regarding the manager's level of honesty. Thus, to the extent that the manager perceives benefits to appearing honest, the presence of an information system can increase managerial honesty. As the information system becomes more precise, however, the manager must forgo greater benefits of misrepresentation in order to achieve the same appearance of honesty. For managers under a precise system, this will shift the trade‐off decision toward the benefits of misrepresentation and away from the benefits of appearing honest. Notably, in our experiment, the only benefit of appearing honest is an intrinsically motivated desire for social approval. We find that, although the existence of an information system increases managerial honesty, honesty is lower under a precise than under a coarse information system. We also compare profit earned by the owners in our experiment, which relies on a behavioral role of an information system, with the maximum profit theoretically possible given a contractual use of the information system. This comparison suggests that, unless the available information system is sufficiently precise, the owner will obtain greater profits by not contracting on its output, even if that output is fully contractible.     

A Hedonic Price Analysis of Farmland Option Premiums Under Urban Influences

An emerging theory, real option pricing, suggests that an important component of urban fringe farmland values may be the option value arising from nearby urban development. This new option pricing theory, as opposed to its standard conventional counterpart in finance, incorporates both the uncertainty about the future net benefits of a land conversion decision and the irreversibility of this action taken. We demonstrate that parsimonious empirical hedonic models of the errors‐in‐variables type, when corrected for heteroskedasticity, can provide adequate representations of farmland option premiums. Data for a random sample of cash rented Ohio farmland parcels are used, and the impacts of urban development on farmland option premiums are estimated. Results provide evidence that (a) both land‐use conversion probability and urban influences have been important factors affecting the option value of the state's farmland, and (b) these option premiums associated with irreversible and uncertain land development are capitalized into farmland values. Une nouvelle théorie, l'évaluation des options réelles, semble indiquer qu'un élément important de la valeur des terres agricoles périurbaines pourrait être la valeur d'option découlant du développement urbain avoisinant. Cette nouvelle théorie, contrairement aux options financières, inclut à la fois l'incertitude quant aux bénéfices nets futurs liés à la décision de convertir une terre et l'irréversibilité de cette décision. Nous avons démontré que les modèles empiriques parcimonieux et hédoniques du type erreurs sur les variables peuvent, une fois l'hétéroscédasticité corrigée, donner des présentations adéquates des prix de l'option des terres agricoles. Nous avons utilisé les données d'un échantillon aléatoire de parcelles de terres agricoles louées au comptant en Ohio et nous avons estimé l'impact du développement urbain sur le prix de l'option des terres agricoles. Les résultats ont montré: a) que la probabilité de conversion de l'utilisation des terres et les influences urbaines sont des facteurs importants qui influent sur la valeur de l'option des terres agricoles de l'État; b) que ces prix de l'option associés à un aménagement urbain irréversible et incertain sont intégrés dans la valeur des terres agricoles.     

Internet adoption and use in small firms: internal processes, organisational culture and the roles of the owner-manager and key staff

Emerging from a study of Internet adoption in UK Midlands manufacturing small firms is a new typology characterising owners and key staff as Warriors, Interpreters, Clerks and Priests. This typology is used to explore the impacts of internal factors and organisational culture on innovation and new technology usage in small firms.     

CONCEPTUALIZING THE GOAL AND SYSTEM MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS —IMPLICATIONS FOR COMPARATIVE EVALUATION RESEARCH

The lack of comparative evaluation research on organizational-effectiveness models is the primary focus of this discussion. Problems in conceptually and operationally defining evaluation models, such as those in the goal and system model classes, are the proposed reason for this lack of comparative research. In this paper, goal and system models are formally defined in terms of their historical origins, underlying criteria and differing methods of application. A goal and system model classification continuum is also presented. Five comparative evaluation research questions are proposed and their implications for research are discussed. From a theoretical perspective this paper attempts to go beyond the sound foundation laid by Campbell (1977) in his discussion of these two schools of thought on organizational effectiveness.