UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERS: IMPACTS ON LOCAL AND U.S. ECONOMIES

In the past two decades, many universities have established Offices of Technology Transfer to increase the transfer rate of certain research innovations to the private sector. More recently, some of these offices have come under pressure to increase their performance and thereby stimulate local economies. This paper discusses various technology transfer methods and presents results of a survey of university Offices of Technology Transfer. Comparisons of these offices take into account size, focus, and differences in public and private universities' goals. The paper concludes by discussing potential pitfalls of technology transfer and of privatizing university research.     

Risk management within the cannabis industry: Building a framework for the cannabis industry

Thirty states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of cannabis for medicinal and/or recreational use by either formally or informally de‐criminalizing its use. However, cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug under the Federal Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. Sections 801 through 812), leaving federal law in conflict with the laws of over half of the states. As a result, market participants in legal cannabis businesses face risks due to the industry's unique legal status within the United States. We examine the risks and challenges deemed by the cannabis industry as the top risks facing the industry's continued future growth and its sustainability. In addition to general risks inherent in a nascent industry, a legal cannabis business faces additional risks, such as risks in its banking and finance activity, placement of insurance, payment of taxes, and managing its supply chain. These legal businesses also face true legal risk from the possibility of being shut down by the federal government and seizure of assets and product under the CSA. This paper also examines whether the cannabis industry would benefit from a futures market to mitigate price risk.     

Back to the Future: The Broadening Accounting Trajectory

Contemporary accounting practice has shown signs of a broadening scope of activities being undertaken both from within and as a service provided to organizations. Based upon a historiographic linking of past and present, this paper examines the past 100 years of broadening professional practice in the discipline as a basis for offering a presentist examination and critique of contemporary accounting education and research opportunities. The scope of what constitutes accounting work is found to have been expanding for over 100 years, becoming increasingly at variance with accountants’ traditional beancounter image. Recent professional accounting association investigations reveal an array of contemporary environmental factors that have accelerated this broadening of the profession’s scope into financial planning, assurance services, strategic, risk, knowledge and change management, and management advisory services. This has called for an expanded accounting skills base which has gained momentum towards the end of the 20^th century. The elements of some of these developing areas of professional work and their implications for contemporary and future education and research are examined.     

Motivations for corporate social responsibility reporting by MNC subsidiaries in an emerging country: The case of Bangladesh

While many studies of the motivations behind the corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) practices of large corporations have been reported internationally, few have focussed on multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiaries. Most importantly, we still do not know how host country institutional norms, or parent corporation policies, influence MNC subsidiaries embarking upon CSRR. By integrating legitimacy theory (LT) and neo-institutional theory (NIT) explanations, this paper offers a theoretical framework for investigating the CSRR practices of MNC subsidiaries in general, and provides empirical evidence on the nature and motivations of subsidiaries’ CSRR practices in Bangladesh, a developing country. Employing a case study method and using qualitative data, the study finds that CSRR practice in Bangladeshi MNC subsidiaries is limited, consisting mainly of employee information. This observation mirrors the overall CSRR trend in Bangladesh. A desire for internal legitimacy emerges as the primary motivation for CSRR practice in MNC subsidiaries. In particular, the external host country environment of the Bangladeshi subsidiaries seems to be a major limitation in the development of CSRR.     

The Distribution of Wealth of Older Self‐Employed Britons

Little is known about the wealth of older self‐employed people, despite growing interest in this labour market group. This paper utilises the British Retirement Survey to fill the gap by providing novel estimates of their lifetime wealth. The findings dispel the idea that the self‐employed live in poverty; indeed, they seem to be a relatively wealthy group, holding a broad spread of assets and subject to moderate lifetime wealth inequality. These findings may help inform modelling of retirement behaviour of this group, as well as pension policy design.     

Revisiting MacCannell's site sacralization theory as an analytical tool: Historic prophetstown as a case study

Historic Prophetstown in Battle Ground, Indiana is intrinsically connected to a pivotal event in Native American and United States military history. While it appears to have all the necessary elements to become a successful tourism attraction, it consistently teeters on the verge of insolvency. Applying sociologist Dean MacCannell's ( 1976 ) five‐stage site sacralization theory as an analytical lens to investigate the site revealed that it has never successfully moved beyond MacCannell's first stage (i.e. naming), which may be a key factor contributing to low visitation and poor economic performance. This suggests that MacCannell's theory can offer unique insights into site development. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

New development: Reconnecting public service ethos and multi-agency collaboration. What are the possibilities and prospects for new local collaborative environments?

The public service ethos (PSE) is typically portrayed as the responsibility of public officers working for the public good, or described negatively as requiring intervention from the private sector. This article explores the relationship between the ethos and collaboration informed by findings from an empirical case study of public officers. It ends by identifying future avenues for research on the PSE by setting out possibilities and prospects for new local collaborative environments.     

Order of entry,trial diffusion,and elasticity dynamics: An empirical case

This paper considers the diffusion process of new brands in order to estimate marketing mix elasticities and order-of-entry effects. Using an empirical case, we test hypotheses regarding the role of order of entry on brand trial processes within a new category. Consistent with research hypotheses, the results demonstrate that the diffusion rate of a brand's trials and its pricing and advertising elasticities vary systematically as a function of competitive entry. Competitive influences (which are negative) increase as order of entry is delayed. Short-term price elasticities are found to be an inverted U relationship with the order of entry, whereby early followers have the highest elasticities, as compared to the pioneer and to later followers. Advertising elasticities decline as the number of competitors increases.     

The Effects of Risk on Self-Employment

The effects of sectoral risk on the propensity to become self-employed are analysed. In contrast to previous studies which assume risk is concentrated only in the self-employment sector, a general equilibrium model is constructed in which uninsurable risk exists in both the paid- and self-employed sectors. It is shown that when agents wish to mix self-employment and employee participation, the effects of sectoral risk on the optimal self-employment decision is ambiguous. This result disappears if agents choose instead to participate in one sector alone.     

Ethical Considerations in the Use of Direct-To-Consumer Advertising and Pharmaceutical Promotions: The Impact on Pharmaceutical Sales and Physicians

The influence of direct-to-consumer advertising and physician promotions are examined in this study. We further examine some of the ethical issues which may arise when physicians accept promotional products from pharmaceutical companies. The data revealed that direct-to-consumer advertising is likely to increase the request rates of both the drug category and the drug brand choices, as well as the likelihood that those drugs will be prescribed by physicians. The data further revealed that the majority of responding physicians were either neutral or did not feel that accepting some types of gifts from pharmaceutical companies affected their ethical behaviors.