The Use of Foreign Accounting Data in UK Financial Institutions

Globalisation of securities markets has caused many members of the investment community to use foreign accounting data. This paper examines how this foreign data is used by some London-based participants in the market. Areas for examination are established after looking at the extensive published research on the use of domestic accounting data and the small amount of published research in an international context. Twenty-one market participants were interviewed, although four of these were treated as a pilot, so that most findings were based on 17 interviewees working for six institutions. If this sample is representative, our findings suggest that market participants are inexpert in accounting; sector experts see international accounting differences as a hindrance but country experts do not; participants use foreign accounting data for analysis but very few adjust it (although fund managers think that analysts do); there is some avoidance of countries or sectors for accounting reasons; and there is very little knowledge of international accounting differences.     

Exchange rates,central bank news and the zero lower bound*

The zero lower bound (ZLB) may restrict the responsiveness of exchange rates to news. A proxy for central bank communication is added as a determinant in a model of exchange rate movements. Two reserve currencies, the British pound and euro, and two currencies of small open economies, the Canadian dollar and Swedish krona, are examined. Reserve currencies are more vulnerable to the ZLB constraint, while the currencies of small open economies become more responsive to foreign central bank announcements. Certain unconventional monetary policy announcements were found to significantly impact exchange rates at the ZLB.     

Detecting Deception: The Benefit of Looking at a Combination of Behavioral, Auditory and Speech Content Related Cues in a Systematic Manner

People communicate with each other across distance in a variety of ways, for example, via the telephone, via electronic forms of communication (the written word) or via videolinks. In this article, behavioral, auditory and speech content related cues which research has shown discriminate (to some extent) between liars and truth tellers will be discussed. Although research has indicated that people are generally poor at detecting deceit, some recent studies suggest that looking at nonverbal, auditory and speech content related responses in an objective and systematic manner will lead to more accurate classifications of liars and truth tellers. These studies will be discussed. Apart from examining the available cues objectively and systematically, lie detection might further improve if the lie detector employs certain communication techniques. In the final part of this article we will discuss some of these techniques.     

Negotiating cultural ambiguity: the role of markets and consumption in multiracial identity development

Due to their growing social visibility and recognized buying power, multiracial individuals have emerged as a viable consumer segment among marketers. However, there is a dearth of research examining how multiracial populations experience the marketplace. In an attempt to better understand the ways in which multiracial individuals utilize consumption practices as a means of developing and expressing their racial identity, this study examined the lived experience of multiracial (black and white) women. Findings of this phenomenological study indicate that multiracial consumers engage with the marketplace to assuage racial discordance and legitimize the liminal space they occupy. This marketplace engagement is explored through themes such as living in two worlds, the mighty ringlets and forced choice. Multiracial identity is seen to be co-constituted by marketers and consumers. Existing theories proved ineffectual at fully capturing the lived experience connected to the consumer acculturation and socialization processes for those with two distinctly constructed racial backgrounds.     

The Sniffing Effect: Olfactory Sensitivity and Olfactory Imagery in Advertising

The authors examine the influence of olfactory sensitivity on the effectiveness of olfactory imagery in advertising. Findings reveal that the use of olfactory imagery can negatively impact ratings for ads, the product advertised, and likelihood to buy, especially for individuals sensitive to smell. The authors demonstrate that the act of sniffing can reverse the negative effects of olfactory imagery in olfactory sensitive individuals. An event-related potential (ERP) study provides evidence of emotions triggered during sniffing and forming olfactory imagery, explaining the underlying mechanism behind the observed behavioral and perceptual effects. Results show that olfactory imagery has an impact on the evaluation of ads, with a possible negative impact for sensitive individuals. Furthermore, the article demonstrates that these effects can be reversed by introducing sniffing cues in the ad. Thus, the use of a multimethod approach, combining behavioral and neuroscience experiments, provides insight into the effectiveness of advertising strategies in consideration of individual differences in consumer olfactory sensitivity. This article provides support for advertisers to consider incorporating sniffing cues (to trigger positive scent-associated emotions) in the construction of scent-relevant ads to enhance positive ratings of ads.     

Ted's Teas: A Two-Part Accounting and Audit “Crossover Case”*

This fictional case is based on a real specialty tea company in Nova Scotia. Ted's Teas is a two-part crossover case that illustrates the integration of financial accounting and audit learning outcomes applied to real-world scenarios. In Part 1, students assume the role of an internal accountant and apply knowledge of the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) of Canada's CPA Way to identify how to treat leases, changes in policy, and estimates as part of accounting knowledge under both Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises and IFRS frameworks. In Part 2, students “cross over” and change roles, so they are now external auditors for Ted's Teas, tasked to provide an analysis of risk of material misstatement, recommend an audit approach, and develop substantive procedures. This two-part case presents opportunities for students to demonstrate technical competence in multiple areas, either separately in two different courses or combined in one “capstone” or case course. The case and teaching notes, including the marking rubrics, were adapted from principles used to train and evaluate CPA Professional Education Program candidates, tailored to an appropriate level for undergraduate and graduate learners.     

Measuring learning from others: The development and validation of the Proactive Social Informal Learning Questionnaire

The present study aims to develop, validate, and cross-validate an instrument measuring three proactive social informal learning activities, namely feedback seeking, help seeking and information seeking. Prior research mainly focused on detecting or measuring the frequency of these seeking behaviours and did not consider whether the information, help or feedback that has been sought was also used. Furthermore, although these seeking behaviours were studied extensively in different research fields, the current study takes a learning perspective and interprets feedback, help and information seeking as learning activities. The questionnaire was completed by a convenient sample of 650 professionals working in higher education, consultancy, retail and food production. We performed an exploratory factor analysis (N = 230 educators) to explore the structure of the questionnaire. This was followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (N = 230 educators) to confirm the structure. Finally, we cross-validated the questionnaire in a sample of business professionals (N = 190) by testing for measurement invariance. The final questionnaire resulted in a five-factor structure measuring the (1) Use of Feedback Seeking, (2) Frequency of Help and Information Seeking, (3) Use of Help seeking, (4) Use of Information Seeking and (5) Frequency of Feedback Seeking. The current study presents a preliminary, yet promising instrument that taps into proactive social informal learning.     

Income disclosure and consumer judgment in a multilevel marketing experiment

Consumer protection concerns have been raised related to income misrepresentation in multilevel marketing (MLM) recruitment. Though not required by law, some MLM firms choose to voluntarily disclose income information about previous participants. Through replication and extension of the experiment created in Bosley, Greenman, and Snyder (2020), we investigate the impact of these disclosures on consumer interest and earnings expectations. We test the external validity of their findings with subjects from Mechanical Turk and explore issues regarding treatment heterogeneity and better-than-average bias. Supporting prior findings, we present evidence that income disclosures, on average, do not significantly affect subjects' interest in the MLM opportunity, but they do decrease earnings estimates for most while increasing earnings estimates for a few. These effects depend on a subject's numeracy skills and whether they see their earnings potential as better-than-average. We also find that asking about earnings estimates first tends to decrease interest.     

Overcoming data barriers in spatial agri-food systems analysis: A flexible imputation framework

Suppressions in public data severely limit the usefulness of spatial data and hinder research applications. In this context, data imputation is necessary to deal with suppressed values. We present and validate a flexible data imputation method that can aid in the completion of under-determined data systems. The validations use Monte Carlo and optimisation modelling techniques to recover suppressed data tables from the 2017 US Census of Agriculture. We then use econometric models to evaluate the accuracy of imputations from alternative models. Various metrics of forecast accuracy (i.e., MAPE, BIC, etc.) show the flexibility and capacity of this approach to accurately recover suppressed data. To illustrate the value of our method, we compare the livestock water withdrawal estimations with imputed data and suppressed data to show the bias in research applications when suppressions are simply dropped from analysis.     

Goode Food Trucks Inc.*

This fictional case centers around a young Dutch couple who emigrated to Canmore, Alberta. Upon arriving, Saul and Rens opened two successful food trucks and are now looking to promote each truck's main chef to truck manager. They plan to offer a performance bonus based on the net income of each truck and have requested a local accounting student to advise them on the new bonus structure. Goode Food Trucks Inc. presents an opportunity for students to demonstrate technical competence in managerial accounting (rate methods, period cost allocation, and data visualization); strategy and governance (employee performance incentives); and financial reporting (reporting needs) while incorporating enabling competencies (communicating and adding value). The case and teaching notes were adapted from principles used to train and evaluate Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) candidates and tailored to an appropriate level for undergraduate learners. MBA instructors may also use this case to apply multiple concepts in a defined context, thus enhancing a course's “real-life” applicability.