Business Groups and the Big Push: Meiji Japan's Mass Privatization and Subsequent Growth

Paul Rosenstein-Rodan argues that economic development requirescoordinated investment in many interdependent industries, andprescribes a flood of state-controlled investment across allsectors—a so-called big push. Widespread government failuredefeated twentieth-century ‘big push’ schemes. Butspillovers across firms and industries, and from public goods,hold-up problems, and capital market limitations are real, andjustify coordinated growth across sectors if it can be donewithout government failures. Large, extensively diversifiedpyramidal business groups of listed firms dominate the historiesof developed economies and the economies of developing economies.Arguing that such groups provided this coordination in prewarJapan after a state-run big push failed, we propose that pyramidalbusiness groups are private-sector mechanisms for coordinatingbig push growth, and that competition between rival groups inducesefficiency unattainable in a state-run big push. We postulatethat a successful business-group led big push requires economicopenness, basic public goods, rule of law, separation of thestate from business, and a timely demise of business groupswhen the big push phase is complete. Where these criteria arenot met, growth stalls and oligarchic families become too powerfulto dislodge.     

Cash Marketing Styles and Performance Persistence

Much agricultural economics research has been dedicated to determining the best time for producers to sell their commodities. Unlike this past research, we look at how producers actually sell commodities. The extent to which producers display an active or mechanical marketing style is measured using individual farmer sales. The activeness of a producer's marketing strategy is measured by how much the timing of their strategy varies from year to year. Results show no relationship between activeness and net prices received. Furthermore, the results show no evidence of performance persistence by individual producers.     

Shades of Gray: An empirical examination of Gray's model of culture and income measurement practices using 20-F data

Gray (1988) developed a theory linking accounting values and systems to Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimensions. To date, no studies have used actual reported data to test the Gray model. This study addresses this shortcoming by using data from the SEC Form 20-F to test proposed relationships between Gray's (1988) accounting value of conservatism (in income measurement practices) and Hofstede's (1980) cultural values. It also tests three other non-cultural environmental variables (tax rates, relative size of capital markets, and influence of the European Union) proposed by Gray (1988) and Salter and Niswander (1995) as modifiers to cultural effects. The results of this study suggest that, as theorized by Gray (1988), the cultural variable individualism is significantly and positively related to differences in income measurement practices between countries. This study also finds that a country's membership in the EU and corporate tax rate is related to income measurement practice differences. However, unlike previous studies, this study does not find that the source of equity is related to income measurement practices.     

Aqui No Se Habla Agencia.* An Examination of the Impact of Adverse Selection and Framing in Decision‐Making: a US/Mexico Comparison

US companies seeking cheaper labor or extraordinary returns have often seen foreign direct investment as a panacea. However, many of these companies founder on the horns of a control dilemma. While raw economic data such as labor rates prove to be true, productivity and decision‐making styles are so different that companies fail to maximize their investment returns. This situation is worsened as companies attempt to impose culturally inappropriate home country controls on their foreign investment. This study examines one of the potential sources of failure, escalation of commitment, which occurs when decision‐makers over‐commit incremental resources to failing investments without reasonable probability of recovery. This behavior has been widely documented in US domestic literature (see Whyte and Hook, 1997 , for a summary). However, there is also some evidence that such behavior is culturally bounded ( Chow et al., 1997; Sharp and Salter, 1997; Greer and Stephens, 2001 ). This study extends previous findings on cross‐cultural differences in decision‐making among managers by comparing the responses of managers in the USA and Mexico to an escalation of commitment exercise. The cross‐cultural validity of two US based theories, agency (adverse selection) and framing (prospect theory), is tested. The results indicate that at base Mexican managers were more risk seeking. However managers from the more individualistic USA were significantly more likely than Mexican managers to escalate in the presence of agency (adverse selection) based incentives. Negative framing among managers was universal in escalating commitment.     

UNITS OF DEBT WITH WARRANTS: EVIDENCE OF THE “PENALTY-FREE” ISSUANCE OF AN EQUITY-LIKE SECURITY

While units of debt with warrants are not structured as perfect substitutes for convertible bonds, there is reason to believe that firms view the two securities as viable alternative methods of raising funds. Analyses of the capital market effects of the announcement of the plan to issue and the issuance of units of debt with warrants provide unique evidence of the “penalty-free” issuance of an equity-like security. Evidence is found to support the conjecture that units are typically issued by smaller, riskier firms than are convertible bonds. However, there is no evidence that the use of this security is interpreted by the market as a sign of financial distress.     

“单纯自我生活”会成为未来全球广告创意趋势

问题1:什么是Getty images研究的创意趋势? Getty Images研究的趋势是指导Getty Images为满足未来一段时间广告创意需要,开展图片创作。通过在全球范围长期认真调查研究,我们发现了大量不同的趋势,这些趋势分别代表了各自领域的发展特点,比如有区域性的,全球性的;老年人的,年轻人的;男人的,女人的等等。尽管趋势种类繁多,各不相同,但我们仍从中发现的一个很有趣的现象,即大趋势的存在,这种大趋势表现出“跨年龄、跨性别、跨地界等”的     

Ethical decision making in the medical profession: An application of the theory of planned behavior

The present study applied Ajzen's (1985) theory of planned behavior to the explanation of ethical decision making. Nurses in three hospitals were provided with scenarios that depicted inadequate patient care and asked if they would report health professionals responsible for the situation. Study results suggest that the theory of planned behavior can explain a significant amount of variation in the intent to report a colleague. Attitude toward performing the behavior explained a large portion of the variance; subjective norms explained a moderate amount of the variance; and, perceived behavioral control added little to the explanation of variance. Implications for research and practice are discussed. Donna M. Randall is an Associate Professor in Management and Systems at Washington State University. Her research interests include organizational commitment, media coverage of elite crime, and ethical issues in management. Her publications have appeared in such journals as Decision Sciences, Academy of Management Review, and Journal of Business Ethics. Annetta M. Gibson is a doctoral student in the Department of Accounting and Business Law at Washington State University and a CPA. Her research interests lie in the area of behavioral accounting and ethical issues in auditing, accounting, and management. She has published in the Journal of Business Ethics.