Activity-Based Costing for Economic Value Added®

Economic value added, which is the currently popular term for the traditional accounting concept of residual income (RI), subtracts from operating income an interest charge for invested capital. This paper provides an activity-based cost system that supports RI maximization. We construct a model of participative budgeting for a multi-activity firm in which the cost system allocates plant and equipment cost to products using a formula that includes the interest charge. The budget system we design enables decision makers to identify RI-improving opportunities for outsourcing and dropping unprofitable products. The budget system also has the open-architecture property that additional informal communication among activity managers can only serve to increase RI.     

Paul Jobling. Man Appeal: Advertising, Modernism, and Menswear * Linda Welters and Patricia Cunningham, eds. Twentieth-Century American Fashion

Since the New Millennium, the study of fashion and apparel hasblossomed as an academic subdiscipline, riding on the achievementsof curatorial pioneers like Claudia Kidwell and the next generationof historians, Valerie Steele and Christopher Breward. In thepublishing world, Berg Press has capitalized on the fervor withthe journal Fashion Theory and the dress, body, and culturebook series. Over the past decade, more than three dozen books—monographsand edited volumes—have come out of the dress, body, andculture series. Many of     

Generational value differences of baby boomers in Thailand

Researchers are expanding our knowledge of cultural value systems by exploring the diverse values that are held by different generations in various countries. The majority of these studies have focused on Western countries with little attention being given to cross cultural differences. This point is particularly true of Asian countries such as Thailand. To fill this research gap, this study explores the generational value differences of baby boomers in Thailand using the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS). The initial comparison is with the United States, which is the most studied country, and then concludes with observations on how Thailand's generational cultures contrast to the findings of similar studies throughout the world using the same RVS instrument.     

人生的45个功课

“为了庆祝变得更老了,我曾经写下人生教我的45个功课。这是我写过的最叫座的专栏。我这把老骨头已经90岁了,所以,再一次,我在这里呈现这一个专栏。”     

Tourists and community development: corporate social responsibility or tourist social responsibility?

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are usually determined, in large part, by head office and by shareholder interests. This article explores the unique case of tourism CSR which has a distinctive relationship with local communities. CSR programmes of hotels and resorts in the Global South are increasingly creating opportunities for tourists to engage directly with communities, yet the relationship between tourists and CSR – and how this impacts on community development outcomes – has so far been overlooked. Based on two separate research projects undertaken in Zambia and Fiji which examined hotel CSR from community perspectives, we show how these programmes were largely motivated, driven and financed by tourists. This suggests that, in the accommodation subsector of tourism, CSR is not only being shaped by head office, but that tourists can play a key role, leading us to coin the term TSR (tourist social responsibility). For community development initiatives in particular, this gives rise to both challenges and opportunities.     

Healthcare reform and its implications for the U.S. economy

U.S. healthcare is currently a poor value proposition in relation to its cost. This must change. Driven by the fundamental forces of financing, consumer preferences, and technology, the U.S. is heading for a profound revolution in healthcare, one that will affect not only the system itself but also the larger U.S. business community. This new healthcare system will create vast opportunities and commensurately large risks for healthcare innovators. The outcomes of the present healthcare reform debate will either liberate or further shackle these innovators. Reforms that depend on governmental controls are more likely to dampen innovation than those achieved through control by consumers, and given the profound ramifications of healthcare reform outcomes, policy makers would be well-advised to harness the forces of consumerism in fashioning reform.     

Item non-response on income and wealth questions

This study investigates the mechanisms determining item nonresponse focusing on three issues: First, is there significant heterogeneity in item non-response across financial questions and in the association of covariates with item non-response across outcomes? Second, can the informational value of surveys be improved by matching interviewers and respondents based on their characteristics? Third, how does offering a “don’t know” answer option affect respondent behavior? The questions are answered based on detailed survey and interviewer data from the German Socioeconomic Panel using a broad set of income and wealth outcomes. We find considerable heterogeneity in non-response across financial items, little explanatory power of interviewer-respondent matches and strong evidence that ‘‘don’t know’’ answers result from mechanisms that differ from those yielding valid responses and outright refusals to respond.     

CDS trading and nonrelationship lending dynamics

Review of Accounting Studies - We investigate how credit default swaps (CDSs) affect lenders’ incentives to initiate new lending relationships. We predict that CDSs reduce adverse selection...