Who responds to changes to the federal adoption tax credit? Evidence from Florida

The federal adoption tax credit (ATC) can help offset the cost of adoption, yet it is unclear whether it has a positive impact on the number of adoptions or if it merely transfers resources to households who would have adopted anyway. The ATC has primarily been a nonrefundable tax credit, but in 2010 and 2011 the full amount (over $13,000) was available as a refundable tax credit, representing a substantial increase in the benefit to lower- and middle-income families—those with typically low tax liability. Using county-level data from Florida, we estimate an increase of 265 additional public adoptions over what would be expected at the end of 2011. Relative decreases in adoptions in the first months of 2012 suggest that much of this increase is due to retiming rather than new adoptions. The response appears to be concentrated in lower- and middle-income households living in higher-income, more populated areas.     

The impact of foreignness on the compliance with cybersecurity controls

This study examines whether and how foreignness affects internal auditors’ compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (the Standards) from social and culture perspective. It demonstrates that foreignness, such as language and relational social capital, has a significant impact on auditors’ compliance with the Standards, especially with respect to cybersecurity, independence and objectivity, individual objectivity, and governance of the Standards. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) is used to analyze the survey data. This study highlights that external factors such as social capital affect the internal auditors’ compliance with the Standards.     

Understanding cross‐border mergers and acquisitions of African firms: The role of dynamic capabilities in enabling competitiveness amidst contextual constraints

This article builds on existing international business literature that examines the drivers of cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) within emerging and developing economy contexts, theoretically exploring how dynamic capabilities (DCs) are connected to these drivers, and how African emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs) can pursue them to achieve competitiveness. The article's contribution is the development of a DC framework and testable propositions for African EMNEs' cross‐border M&As. The theoretical framework shows the division of DC dimensions—sensing, seizing, and transforming—and establishes explanations for their linkage with institutional and resource drivers for African EMNEs' cross‐border M&A competitiveness. In addition, the article outlines managerial implications to this effect. Overall, the article contributes to the emerging literature on the international expansion of African EMNEs through cross‐border M&As by underscoring the role of DCs.     

Potential model misspecification bias: Formative indicators enhancing theory for accounting researchers

This paper describes why and when formative factors, in combination with reflective measures, can be used in accounting research to better represent complex theoretical constructs. We argue that the exclusive use of reflective factors constrains theory development and may lead to imprecise measurement. We provide a review of 66 published research papers from Accounting, Organization and Society, The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Accounting, Auditing, & Accountability Journal, Behavioral Research in Accounting, International Journal of Accounting, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Management Accounting Research, Abacus, and Journal of Management Accounting Research using Structural Equation Models (SEM) from 1992 to 2008 to illustrate improvement of misspecification bias in leading accounting journals. Our findings suggest that most of the studies modeled constructs that did not include formative indicators.     

Male White-Black Wage Gaps, 1979-1994: A Distributional Analysis

This paper examines whether the “stretching” (increased variance of wages) of the skill distribution during the 1980s explains the growth in within-group white-black wage gaps. The paper also develops a skill-specific decomposition that measures the stretching's contribution to the wage gap's growth at various skill levels of the distribution. The “local” nature of the skill-specific decomposition breaks the correlation between changes in the position of blacks in the white residual distribution and changes in the variance of wages, thus yielding unbiased estimates of the degree to which the stretching explains changes in the wage gap. The paper shows that if the wage distribution's stretching is an important contributor to the overall wage gap's growth, its greatest impact is at the middle and upper portions of the skill distribution. For wage gaps within education and experience categories, the stretching's contribution is greatest at the tails of the skill distributions.     

Short reports

The aim of the study was to evaluate a hospital-based injury recording system on hip fracture registration in elderly persons aged + 65 years from 1994 through 2008, and to examine the agreement between the number of validated fractures and the number of fractures reported to the Norwegian Patient Registry using three different sources: (1) Medical records, (2) Patient administrative system and (3) The hospital's hip fracture record to the Norwegian Patient Registry from 2002 through 2008. The injury recording system included 582 hip fracture events and 535 (92%) were confirmed through the medical records. Reasons for non-verification were different coding failures. Searching the patient administrative system using ICD codes identified 16 hip fractures not included in the fracture registry between 2002 through 2008. The total number was the same as the number of hip fractures reported to the Norwegian Patient Registry using ICD codes alone for identification. The conclusion is that on well-defined diagnosis like hip fractures, local fracture registries may obtain a high degree of reliability if different sources are available for quality control. Well-functioning patient administrative systems may be used to study numbers of hip fractures.     

The state of technological sophistication and the need for new specialised tertiary degrees in food services

Hospitality management graduates have limited insights into latest operational/technological concepts such as Industrial Cuisine, Molecular Gastronomy and Personalised Nutrition. In fact, ‘hard’ or equipment-based technologies support the two major strategic options, cost leadership and differentiation. At present, suppliers and governments, but not operators, drive research and development in the field. In the education sector, new specialised curricula incorporating pathways stemming from natural science are needed to equip future graduates with ‘cutting edge’ skills for innovation at product, process and system levels. The research-teaching cycle can be strengthened by sharing degrees with departments of science and engineering across tertiary institutions.     

Inter-firm linkages and the wealth effects of financial distress along the supply chain

Extant research examines the extent to which bankruptcy has intra-industry valuation consequences. This study broadens the investigation by examining the wealth effects of distress and bankruptcy filing for suppliers and customers of filing firms. On average, important wealth effects occur prior to and at bankruptcy filings and extend beyond industry competitors along the supply chain. Specifically, distress related to bankruptcy filings is associated with negative and significant stock price effects for suppliers. Supplier wealth effects are more negative when intra-industry contagion is more severe. We also investigate the importance of industry structure, specialized product nature, and leverage on supply chain effects.     

Property rights,land use and the rural environment: A case for reform

English Law confers extensive land use rights as an integral attribute of property entitlements and land ownership. Property rights have, however, been subject to incremental reform by a number of different legal and policy instruments since 1945. Many have been introduced since the UK's accession to the European Community in 1972 and are derived from European Union environmental law, and from the law of the Common Agricultural Policy. Others derive from planning law and policy. There has, as a consequence, been an extensive modification to the allocation of land-based utility recognised in property rights, although the common law theory of property entitlements has remained unaffected. This paper considers the impact of these developments on property rights theory, and anticipates the further modifications to property concepts that will be required by a land use policy increasingly focussed on the promotion of environmental stewardship in the countryside. It makes the case for the introduction of a general duty of environmental stewardship as an attribute of property ownership in the law of England and Wales. It considers the contribution that this would make to the delivery of a stable and effective environmental policy for rural land use, and towards a recognition of the wider community interest in, and reliance upon, the sustainable management of land.