New stock issues and the institutional production of trust

This study considers the institutions and institutional mechanisms that produce the trust necessary for the new stock issue process to work. A case study of the Canadian institutional environment is used to illustrate the interrelationships among (1) security regulations, (2) the accounting profession, and (3) stock market regulations along with the embedding of other trust mechanisms within institutional practices. The theory and analysis explicitly considers what is usually taken-for-granted in capital market studies. In addition, the study highlights some of the unintended consequences that may result from the institutional production of trust and the presence of multiple trust-producing institutions.     

设备维修50年的历史教训(续)

四、维修职业在 19世纪和 2 0世纪的早期 ,我们已经有了许多知名的工程师 ,如司梯芬荪 (Stephenson)、布鲁纳尔 (Brunel)、罗尔斯 (Rolls)和罗伊司 (Royce)等人 ,他们都认识到维修的重要性。由于维修质量良好和职业自尊心 ,他们的许多创见今天仍然在使用着。在英格兰南部的几座     

To the Water’s Edge,and Beyond: Effects of Shore Protection Projects on Beach Development

The effects on real estate development of shore-protection efforts that lower erosion rates and storm hazards are both controversial and difficult to detect. A simple theoretical model indicates that shore protection is likely to tilt development from areas a few hundred feet inland toward beachfront property. A modified repeat-sale house price index is used to measure price appreciation rates to the waters edge. We are able to formulate an extremely sensitive empirical test for a tilt in rates of house-price appreciation implied by a tilt in development. Surprisingly, we find no significant evidence that shore-protection efforts have produced additional beachfront development in the Florida counties studied. The method used in this article is quite general and could be used in a number of applications where an environmental effect impacts real estate differentially over space.     

New venture strategy and profitability: A venture capitalist's assessment

This study uses theoretically justified criteria from the industrial organization (IO) strategy literature and applies it to a new domain, namely, venture capitalists' decision making. Specifically, the study investigates the types of information venture capitalists utilize when evaluating new ventures and how venture capitalists use this information to assess likely new venture profitability. In the interest of advancing our understanding of the decision making policies of venture capitalists, this study addresses many of the limitations of previous research.A review of IO research suggests important relationships between a number of strategy variables and new venture profitability. Some of the relationships proposed by IO strategy research are contingent in nature. The strategy variables and their relationships with profitability are investigated in the domain of venture capitalists' decision making. Individual and aggregate decision making analyses identified those strategy variables (criteria) venture capitalists utilize in assessing likely new venture profitability, namely, timing, key success factor stability, lead time, competitive rivalry, educational capability, industry-related competence, timing × key success factor stability interaction, timing × lead time interaction, and timing × educational capability interaction.On average, the most important criterion for venture capitalists in their assessment of profitability is industry-related competence. The second tier of importance is competitive rivalry, timing, and educational capability. The third tier of importance is lead time, key success factor stability, and timing × lead time interaction. Other interactions are less important. Therefore, while venture capitalists use contingent decision policies, main effects dominate. If venture capitalists use a reported 8 to 12 minutes on average to evaluate a business plan (Sandberg 1986), then this study's findings may help the inexperienced venture capitalist allocate time towards assessing those attributes of primary importance. Although more complex relationships exist between the attributes, the inexperienced venture capitalist can take comfort from this study's findings that main effects dominant amongst senior venture capitalists. Senior venture capitalists may take less comfort from their importance placed on main effects in light of research from IO, which suggests the importance of contingent relationships. The results may also have practical application towards training.How should venture capital firms train their new employees? Should venture capital firms rely solely on experienced venture capitalists lecturing the inexperienced on the criteria they use in assessing a new venture proposal? Like most decision makers, venture capitalists have limited insight into their assessments and venture capital firms need to be aware of the gap between “espoused” policies and policies “in use.” The information being taught needs to be supplemented with venture capitalists' decision-making research that investigates decision policies “in use”, such as this study. Venture capitalist training could also involve experiential learning, in conjunction with cognitive feedback about the decision policies used, to accelerate the learning process. Experiential learning using cognitive feedback maximizes industry related learning while minimizing the cost of inexperienced decisions. For the entrepreneur seeking capital, this increased understanding of venture capitalists' decision making may help them better target their business plans and presentations at those criteria venture capitalists' find most critical to the profitability of a new venture.     

Determinants of Perceptions of Cheating: Ethical Orientation, Personality and Demographics

A sample of 227 business students from the United States and Australia was used to evaluate factors that impact business students' ethical orientation and factors that impact students' perceptions of ethical classroom behaviors. Perceptions of classroom behaviors was considered a surrogate for future perceptions of business behaviors. Independent factors included age, gender, religious orientation, country of origin, personality, and ethical orientation. A number of factors were related to ethical orientation, but only age and religious orientation exhibited much impact upon perceptions of ethical classroom behaviors.     

“You can try to press different emotional buttons”: The conflicts and strategies of eliciting emotions for fundraisers

In a competitive climate in which charities must increasingly rely on fundraising with the public, emotions such as hope, guilt, and fear are powerful tools that can be used strategically to secure donations or participation. This paper explores data from interviews with 23 fundraisers and voluntary sector workers, managers, and officials, to argue that decisions around how, why, and when to invest in the elicitation of emotion in fundraising are often difficult and conflicted, with some identifying a battle between ethics and effectiveness. We identify 3 key levels of conflict that must be negotiated: at the level of the charity sector, where the emotional ethics particularly of larger charities have been met with some resistance from the public and press; at the level of the organisation itself, where the ethics of representation are often a subject of conflict between fundraising and other departments such as policy; and, finally, at the experiential level of individual fundraisers themselves, who report being routinely internally conflicted around the rights and wrongs of using emotion in their work. A strategic approach to eliciting emotion emerges in the data as a useful way to address some of these areas of conflict, with fundraisers making careful “balancing” decisions about how and with whom to mobilise certain emotions at specific times.