Leisure corporations,beer brand culture,and the crisis of masculinity: the Speight’s ‘Southern Man’ advertising campaign

Leisure corporations and their brands are becoming increasingly signified to represent certain values and attitudes towards leisure and particular aspects of identity. One popular leisure product and practice is beer and its consumption, which also plays a role in constructing identity and, more specifically, masculinity. Within the context of contemporary promotional culture, beer advertising serves to reproduce the cultural links between masculinity, sport/leisure, and the consumption of beer, which form a theorised ‘holy trinity’. In this paper, we focus on Speight’s, one of New Zealand’s renowned breweries and beer brands, to explore the ways in which its promotional culture illuminates notions of a crisis of masculinity. Our multimethod, qualitative approach combines contextualisation with the critical textual analysis of two advertisements from the ‘Southern Man’ television campaign and interview data obtained from one key cultural intermediary, the campaign’s creator. From this, our analysis elucidates three key dimensions about the important role of the Speight’s ‘Southern Man’ advertising campaign as a site for understanding masculinities, in addition to how they are constructed and, ultimately, how they embody a crisis of masculinity. The first is the campaign’s exploitation of societal cleavages. The second is the campaign’s explicit use of nostalgia. And the third is the campaign’s omission of ‘other’ masculinities.     

The welfare implications of increasing disability insurance benefit generosity

In order to evaluate whether workers are over- or under-insured through the Disability Insurance (DI) program, we develop a framework that allows us to simulate the benefits as well as the costs associated with marginal changes in payment generosity from a representative cross-sectional sample of the population. Under the assumption that individuals are reasonably risk averse, we find that the typical worker would value increased benefits somewhat above the average costs of providing them. However, whether the benefit increases tend to lower or raise utility when we average across all individuals in our sample is sensitive to assumptions that affect the relative marginal utility of income to disabled individuals.     

The myth of secure computing

Few senior executives pay a whole lot of attention to computer security. They either hand off responsibility to their technical people or bring in consultants. But given the stakes involved, an arm's-length approach is extremely unwise. According to industry estimates, security breaches affect 90% of all businesses every year and cost some $17 billion. Fortunately, the authors say, senior executives don't need to learn about the more arcane aspects of their company's IT systems in order to take a hands-on approach. Instead, they should focus on the familiar task of managing risk. Their role should be to assess the business value of their information assets, determine the likelihood that those assets will be compromised, and then tailor a set of risk abatement processes to their company's particular vulnerabilities. This approach, which views computer security as an operational rather than a technical challenge, is akin to a classic quality assurance program in that it attempts to avoid problems rather than fix them and involves all employees, not just IT staffers. The goal is not to make computer systems completely secure--that's impossible--but to reduce the business risk to an acceptable level. This article looks at the types of threats a company is apt to face. It also examines the processes a general manager should spearhead to lessen the likelihood of a successful attack. The authors recommend eight processes in all, ranging from deciding how much protection each digital asset deserves to insisting on secure software to rehearsing a response to a security breach. The important thing to realize, they emphasize, is that decisions about digital security are not much different from other cost-benefit decisions. The tools general managers bring to bear on other areas of the business are good models for what they need to do in this technical space.     

A Tutorial on Multilevel Survival Analysis: Methods,Models and Applications

Data that have a multilevel structure occur frequently across a range of disciplines, including epidemiology, health services research, public health, education and sociology. We describe three families of regression models for the analysis of multilevel survival data. First, Cox proportional hazards models with mixed effects incorporate cluster‐specific random effects that modify the baseline hazard function. Second, piecewise exponential survival models partition the duration of follow‐up into mutually exclusive intervals and fit a model that assumes that the hazard function is constant within each interval. This is equivalent to a Poisson regression model that incorporates the duration of exposure within each interval. By incorporating cluster‐specific random effects, generalised linear mixed models can be used to analyse these data. Third, after partitioning the duration of follow‐up into mutually exclusive intervals, one can use discrete time survival models that use a complementary log–log generalised linear model to model the occurrence of the outcome of interest within each interval. Random effects can be incorporated to account for within‐cluster homogeneity in outcomes. We illustrate the application of these methods using data consisting of patients hospitalised with a heart attack. We illustrate the application of these methods using three statistical programming languages (R, SAS and Stata).     

The Theory and Evidence on Real Estate Financial Decisions: A Review of the Issues

There has developed a growing body of literature, both theoretically and empirically based, on real estate financial decisions. Despite these advances, there are a number of important issues that remain unanswered. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review and analysis of where research on real estate financial decisions has been, where it stands today, and where it is likely to be headed in the future. Some of the unresolved issues in real estate investment analysis are also discussed. The hope is that this review will provide the stimulus for solving some of these complex issues.     

Offshore wind power development as affected by seascape values on the German North Sea coast

In Germany, the first permits have now been issued for the construction of large-scale offshore wind farms in the German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). This paper focuses on perceptions of the local seascape and the role of aesthetic seascape qualities in shaping local attitudes to offshore wind farming. Based on a survey of local residents in the districts of Dithmarschen and North Frisia, it shows that aesthetic seascape perception alone cannot account for local attitudes to offshore wind farming. Three main aspects seem to come together to determine these attitudes: deeply held convictions of the sea as a natural space, deeply held views of the local landscape and linked to this local identity, and also perceptions of renewable energies in combination with attitudes to issues such as climate change and sea level rise. The paper draws some conclusions on the future of the sea as a natural space or energy space.     

Mirroring Canadian Industrial Policy: Strategy Formation at Dominion Textile from 1873 to 1990

This paper tracks the strategies of a “quintessentially Canadian company,” Dominion Textile Inc., through most of its history, from 1873 to 1990. Created entrepreneur-ially, but soon consolidated politically, it became the dominant player in an important industry in Canada, faltering bureaucratically before it renewed itself competitively. As discussed in the conclusions, the company mirrored Canadian industrial policy remarkably closely throughout its life, through the states of “getting there” politically, “staying there” positionally, and “keeping there” competitively. Overall, it was remarkably deliberate in its strategic behaviour, yet that deliberateness exhibited emergent consequences, much as a Slinky toy placed on a top step walks its way down the stairs. Résumé Cet article trace les stratégies de Dominion Textile Inc., une entreprise qui représente la quintessence de l'industrie canadienne, tout au long de la plus grande partie de son histoire (1873–1990). Créée sur le mode de l'esprit d'entreprise mais bientǒt consolidée sur un mode politique, elle est devenue l'acteur dominant d'un secteur industriel important au Canada, puis a failli s'effondrer sur un mode bureaucratique avant de se renouveler sur un mode compétitif. Comme lïndique la conclusion, pendant toute son histoire cette entreprise a reflété de très près la politique industrielle canadienne à travers les différentes phases qu'elle a connues: y arriver politiquement, y rester stratégiquement, s'y maintenir compétitivement. Dans l'ensemble, son comportement stratégique a été remarquablement délibéré. Toutefois, ce caractère délibéré a pu générer des conséquences émergents, comme un jouet Slinky qui, posé sur la plus haute marche, descend l'escalier tout seul.     

The influence of CEO and CFO power on accruals and real earnings management

In this study, we examine the effect of CEO and CFO power on both accruals and real earnings management (AEM and REM, respectively), and the extent to which CEO and CFO power mitigate the effect of one another on AEM and REM. We further examine whether the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) altered these effects. In the pre-SOX period, we find that AEM (REM) is greater when the CEO (CFO) is powerful relative to the CFO (CEO). In the post-SOX period, however, we find that the effect of relative CEO power on AEM subsides, whereas the effect of relative CFO power on REM persists. Additionally, we find evidence to suggest that powerful CFOs inhibit the AEM preferences of powerful CEOs in both the pre- and post-SOX periods. Finally, we find evidence to suggest that powerful CEOs inhibit the REM preferences of powerful CEOs in the pre-SOX period, but not in the post-SOX period. Collectively, our results suggest that the power of the CEO relative to the CFO is an important factor in the both the type and magnitude of earnings management.