Consumer attitudes towards self‐referral with early signs of cancer: implications for symptom awareness campaigns

• Traditionally, secondary prevention programmes have employed mass screening approaches to assess for asymptomatic signs of cancer. It has been suggested that early detection strategies, involving public education and self‐referral may prove more cost‐effective, with low‐risk populations for cancers with symptomatic presentation. The success of public education approaches is dependent on careful consideration of the psycho‐social factors of self‐examination and referral. This paper presents the findings from an exploratory study, using qualitative methods with an at‐risk population of older people living in deprived communities in west‐central Scotland. The study examines consumer perceptions of the early detection of cancer and the cultural barriers to self‐referral, as well as response to aspects of communication strategy. The implications for design of symptom awareness campaigns, including use of message appeals, specification of target symptoms, identification of target audience and selection of communication channels, are discussed.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hospitals and philanthropy as partners in funding nursing education

The current nursing shortage is complex and varies widely across the country, and remedial approaches lack adequate funding from the federal government. Lasting remedies must originate from new and different partnerships between multiple institutions with complementary missions in these markets. Hospitals as major nurse employers and foundations that leverage critical sources of financing have a vital role in partnerships. Together they promote and require new entrepreneurial skills, innovative educational strategies, and greater accountability in meeting area workforce needs.     

Audit committee financial expertise,corporate governance,and the voluntary switch from auditor-provided to non-auditor-provided tax services

A prime objective of the SOX is to safeguard auditor independence. We investigate the relation between audit committee quality, corporate governance, and audit committees' decision to switch from permissible auditor-provided tax services. We find that firms with more independent boards, audit committees with greater accounting financial expertise, higher stock ownership by directors and institutions, that separate the CEO and Chairman of the board positions, and with higher tax to audit fee ratios are more likely to switch to a non-auditor provider. Further, we document that firms are more likely to switch prior to issuing equity. We find no evidence that broad financial expertise on audit committees is related to the switch decision, suggesting that the SEC's initial narrow definition of expertise is more consistent with the objective of the SOX. Overall, our results suggest that accounting financial expertise and strong corporate governance contribute to enhanced audit committee monitoring of auditor independence.     

Household survey data for research on well-being and behavior in Central Asia

This paper summarizes the micro-level survey evidence from Central Asia generated and analyzed in the period 1991–2012. We provide an exhaustive overview over all accessible individual and household-level surveys undertaken in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – and of all academic papers published using these datasets. We argue that Central Asia is a fascinating region for the study of comparative economics given its dual experience of transition and development. However, the region is also understudied, in part due to lack of data, and especially due to a lack of panel data. We identify knowledge gaps derived from this lack of longitudinal surveys and suggest worthwhile areas for future research. Finally, we also present a new and novel individual-level panel dataset called “Life in Kyrgyzstan”.     

The Relationship of Communication, Ethical Work Climate, and Trust to Commitment and Innovation

Recently, Hosmer (1994a) proposed a model linking right, just, and fair treatment of extended stakeholders with trust and innovation in organizations. The current study tests this model by using Victor and Cullen's (1988) ethical work climate instrument to measure the perceptions of the right, just, and fair treatment of employee stakeholders.In addition, this study extends Hosmer's model to include the effect of right, just, and fair treatment on employee communication, also believed to be an underlying dynamic of trust.More specifically, the current study used a survey of 111 managers to test (1) whether right, just, and fair treatment influences trust, both directly as well as indirectly via communication, and (2) whether trust influences perceptions of commitment and innovation. Strong support for the study's hypotheses and Hosmer's (1994a) model was found. Such findings support those who argue that moral management may be good management.     

The Role of Human and Financial Capital in the Profitability and Growth of Women-Owned Small Firms

This paper examines the relationship between human and financial capital and firm performance for women- and men-owned small firms in the service and retail sectors. Results indicate that human capital variables, including education and experience, had a positive impact on the profitability of women-owned firms, whereas measures of financial capital had a greater impact of the profitability of men-owned firms. The ability to secure financial capital also had a positive impact on the growth rate of men-owned firms, but did not appear to affect the growth rate of women-owned firms. These findings suggest that the growth aspirations for women-owned firms may be driven by factors other than human capital or the ability to secure external capital.     

Moral Judgment and Causal Attributions: Consequences of Engaging in Earnings Management

Recent, well-publicized accounting scandals have shown that the penalties outsiders impose on those found culpable of earnings management can be severe. However, less is known about how colleagues within internal labor markets respond when they believe fellow managers have managed earnings. Designers of responsibility accounting systems need to understand the reputational costs managers impose on one another within internal labor markets. In an experimental study, 159 evening MBA students were asked to assume the role of a manager in a company and respond to a scenario in which another manager (the target manager) has the opportunity to engage in earnings management. Participants provided causal attributions, assessed the morality of the target manager, and indicated whether they would change their judgments about the target manager’s reputation. The study manipulated three between-subjects factors: (1) whether the target manager chose to engage in earnings management, (2) whether the company’s budgetary control system was rigid or flexible, and (3) whether the target manager’s work history was average or above average. We found that causal attributions are affected more by the budgetary systems when the target did not manage earnings than when the manager did. We also found that morality judgments were significantly associated with the target manager’s behavior, but not with the budgetary system. In addition, participants’ judgments about the target manager’s reputation were more strongly associated with morality judgments than with causal attributions. We discuss implications of the role of reputation in management control systems design. Steven E. Kaplan received his B.S. degree from Arizona State University and his graduate degrees from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Professor Kaplan has published in numerous academic and professional journals, including Advances in Accounting, Cost and Management, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, National Tax Journal, Management Accounting, and Auditing: A Journal of practice and Theory. His current research focuses primarily on auditor judgment. He is a member of the American Accounting Association. Professor Kaplan has two daughters, Leah and Serena. He enjoys trout fishing and bowling. James C. McElroy is University Professor and the Bill and Liz Goodwin Faculty Fellow in the Department of Management at Iowa State University. He has a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University, an MBA from the University of South Dakota and a B.S. from Jamestown College. Dr. McElroy has published over 55 refereed articles in a variety of journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Journal of Educational Computing Research and Computers in Human Behavior. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Labor Research, and Journal of Managerial Issues. His current research deals with personality and computer use, self handicapping behavior, and technology as a form of object language. Susan P. Ravenscroft is the Roger P. Murphy Professor Accounting and currently teaches managerial accounting and governmental and non-profit accounting. She and Professor Steve Kaplan have won the Glen McLaughlin Award for Research in Accounting Ethics. She has a PhD from Michigan State University. Dr. Ravenscroft’s research interests include ethics, pedagogical issues, and the social role of accounting information. Charles B. Shrader is a Bill and Liz Goodwin professor of Management in the College of Business at Iowa State University. His PhD and MBA degrees are from Indiana University. His current research interests include the relationships of strategy, diversity, and corporate social responsibility with organizational performance.     

Altruistic nonprofit firms in competitive markets: The case of day-care centers in the United States

Day care for young children is provided in the United States by a wide range of individuals and organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, public and private. Some children receive direct public subsidies; others do not, but any type of center may, if it wishes, become eligible to accept subsidized children. How can such a heterogeneous industry structure persist? How well has this mixture of organizations and financing arrangements been in responding to the current growth in the labor force participation of mothers? Using cross-section state-by-state data, this paper provides evidence demonstrating that the industry is very responsive to demand conditions (e.g., the level of female labor force participation, the number of children in single-parent families), but that subsidy money is distributed across the nation in a way that bears little relation to the relative needs of the population. Furthermore, interstate differences in regulatory stringency affect relative costs and appear to limit supply where regulations are most restrictive. I also argue that the current mixed industry structure is stable. Many nonprofits provide high-quality services at low prices because they are managed by altruists and receive private donations. Such firms do not, however, take over the market because there are not enough altruistic managers or donors to go around. Instead they ration their supply and those who cannot be served turn to other parts of the market. The marginal producers, however, appear to be for-profits which respond to profitable opportunities by entry and expansion.