The Dividend Substitution Hypothesis: Australian Evidence

In a perfect capital market firms are indifferent to either dividends or repurchases as payout mechanisms, suggesting that the two payout methods should be perfect substitutes. Empirical research at the single country level, as well as cross country studies, provide evidence that dividends and repurchases act as substitutes (the dividend substitution hypothesis), and that the tax treatment of dividends versus capital gains affects this relation. Australia, which operates under a full dividend imputation system, has two types of repurchases: on‐ and off‐market. On‐market repurchases are taxed as capital gains while off‐market repurchases comprise a large dividend component carrying valuable tax credits. Australia thus provides a natural setting to investigate how the tax treatment of proceeds affects the dividend substitution hypothesis. Dividend substitution is found to exist for on‐market repurchases but not for off‐market repurchases, thus providing further support for the idea that the tax treatment of proceeds affects the substitutability of repurchases and dividends.     

Liquidity, analysts, and institutional ownership

In this paper, we investigate the empirical relationship between institutional ownership, number of analysts following and stock market liquidity. We find that firms with larger number of financial analysts following have wider spreads, lower market quality index, and larger price impact of trades. However, we find that firms with higher institutional ownership have narrower spreads, higher market quality index, and smaller price impact of trades. In addition, we show that changes in our liquidity measures are significantly related to changes in institutional ownership over time. These results suggest that firms may alleviate information asymmetry and improve stock market liquidity by increasing institutional ownership. Our results are remarkably robust to different measures of liquidity and measures of information asymmetry.     

Risk-Adjusted Discount Rates and Projects of Unequal Lives

When evaluating mutually exclusive projects of unequal lives and with differing risk, standard approaches such as the constant chain of replacement, lowest common multiple and equivalent annual value techniques are usually applied. In using these techniques to rank projects, a critical issue is the manner in which uncertainty in the cashflows is resolved through time. We explore the applicability of net present value techniques to the problem of valuing assets with unequal lives, emphasising the use of equivalent annual value and lowest common multiple methods, and the correct choice of discount rate. Our results have direct application to practical capital budgeting problems such as choosing the optimum lifespan for a single asset, choosing between assets with different lifespans, and deciding whether to "run an asset for another year".     

Stealing Time at Work: Attitudes,Social Pressure,and Perceived Control as Predictors of Time Theft

Organizations have long struggled to find ways to reduce the occurrence of unethical behaviors by employees. Unfortunately, time theft, a common and costly form of ethical misconduct at work, has been understudied by ethics researchers. In order to remedy this gap in the literature, we used the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate the antecedents of time theft, which includes behaviors such as arriving later to or leaving earlier from work than scheduled, taking additional or longer breaks than is acceptable, and on-the-job daydreaming. We surveyed 135 employed undergraduate business students regarding the TPB variables at Time 1. Two months later, participants reported the frequency they engaged in time theft since Time 1. Results indicate that behavioral, normative, and control beliefs significantly predicted attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, respectively. Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control, in turn, were significantly related to time theft intentions, which predicted later enactment of time theft. Thus, employers can decrease time theft by primarily focusing on altering employees’ attitudes toward time theft, followed by reducing social pressures to engage in it, and lastly, by implementing organizational practices that make it difficult to commit time theft.     

FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN UNDERGRADUATE INSURANCE EDUCATION: ACADEMIC AND REAL WORLD PERSPECTIVES

Abstract: The authors discuss the hiring patterns of some insurers and examine why insurers do not always seek out students with risk management and insurance backgrounds. The authors suggest that it is important for universities and insurers to work more closely so that students coming out of college insurance programs are well prepared to work in the insurance industry.     

Intercultural Competency Development in Conjunction With a Short Term Study Away Experience： Changes in Undergraduate Students

The purpose of this research was to examine whether undergraduate business students who participated in a short term study abroad course and intercultural competence building coursework demonstrated a significant increase in intercultural competence over those who only enrolled in the study abroad course. The 20 participants attended a small liberal arts College in Midwestern United States. The Intercultural Development Inventory （IDI） was administered to the participating students before and after their study away experience. The IDI （v.3） is based on the theoretical framework of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity （DMIS） introduced by Milton Bennett. The DMIS is based on the assumption that intercultural competence can be strengthen through the development of intercultural knowledge and experience with people from other cultures. The IDI has been used in numerous scholarly studies and has demonstrated valid and reliable results. It is a self-administered 50-item series of statements in which participants are asked to rate the level of their agreement with statements that address their relationship to and evaluation of cultural difference. In the model, people progress in a linear developmental fashion through six stages： defense, denial, polarization, minimization, acceptance, and adaptation. This study was designed to determine if students who studied away and completed intercultural coursework （prior intercultural knowledge and an intercultural experience） would increase their level of intercultural competency more than those students who just studied away （intercultural experience only） as measured by the change in their IDI scores. The results of this small sample show that intercultural coursework in conjunction with a short term study away experience can have a positive impact on individual intercultural development.     

Retaining the visitor,enhancing the experience: identifying attributes of choice in repeat museum visitation

• How people make choices in relation to cultural and leisure consumption has been explored from the viewpoint of motivation, lifestyle segmentation, and lifecycle. Little is known about the specific characteristics associated with choices to visit, re‐visit, or not to visit a museum. Understanding characteristics of choice, developing incentives, bundled packages, and levels of pricing is an essential element in marketing strategies for museums operating in a competitive leisure marketplace. However, determining what really matters to cultural consumers is complex and methodologies to assist in unraveling such complexities are not easily identified. This study aimed to address ways in which people respond to specific incentives as influences in choosing museum visitation. The study was conducted in two major museums in Australia to determine how useful choice modeling is in identifying features that matter to cultural consumers. The results suggest that choice modeling has much to offer in relation to understanding the benefits people are seeking from a museum experience as well as offering strategic insight into potential collaborative ventures and re‐combinations of existing museum products and services.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coda

Technology and globalization have the potential to make higher education more affordable and accessible. In practice, however, rising costs limit educational access, and competition threatens the sustainability of many colleges and universities (Grummon, 2009). With the relevance of traditional curricula in question and the demand for alternate delivery methods expanding, many higher learning institutions face a challenge to reinvent themselves (Barnatt, 2008; Grummon, 2009; Lee, Brennan, & Green, 2009). We asked four higher education leaders from demographically and structurally diverse institutions to address the question, “How will colleges and universities serve the global knowledge economy in the coming decades?” Our respondents represent perspectives from multiple educational paradigms—public and private, local and international, for‐profit and nonprofit, brick‐and‐mortar and online. George Mihel, president of Sauk Valley Community College in Illinois, offers a position paper on the need to transform some of higher education’s deep‐rooted institutional traditions. George Miller, chancellor of American InterContinental University, teams with Caroline Molina‐Ray, a University of Phoenix faculty member, to address how higher education can foster both technological competency and critically reflexive thinking. Naana J. S. Opoku‐Agyemang, vice chancellor of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, offers insight into the unique challenges and accomplishments of higher education in Africa. Finally, Vicki T. Purslow, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Oregon University, and Christine Cook Florence, a higher education marketing consultant, present a commentary synthesizing the symposium contributions and issuing a call to action for higher education leaders. Together, these diverse perspectives offer a glimpse into the higher education of the future.</     

Media richness and internet exploration

Previous research found that media richness is associated with positive evaluation of a web site. An experiment was carried out where participants were instructed to explore a web site presenting a popular town: Venice. According to a random distribution, participants were exposed (or not) to street‐sounds when exploring the web site and had the possibility to control (or not) the photography (using a 360° navigation with their mouse) displayed on the web site. Results shown that higher evaluation were associated with sounds and mouse‐control. Theory of media richness was used to explain our results and the managerial application for tourism was discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.