“To love beer above all things”: An analysis of Brazilian craft beer subculture of consumption

In this article, we describe and analyze the Brazilian craft beer subculture of consumption. We observed that feelings play an important role inside this subculture and used a sociocultural approach to analyze it. Field notes from 9 months of fieldwork at beer festivals, craft beer meetings, and Collective Brassages and 40 interviews with consumers are used as data. “Drink less, drink better” is the subculture’s motto and shows commitment to enjoyment and responsibility as craft beer consumers reject mass-produced beer and antisocial behaviors usually associated with beer drinkers. We differentiated members of the craft beer subculture of consumption according to their commitment to subculture ethos, beer-specific knowledge, experience drinking and making beer, and emotional attachment to craft beer. Craft beer consumers experience different sentiments as their status inside the subculture increases and hard-core members show a religious fervor for the beer that is similar to consumer devotion.     

Trading frequency and the efficiency of price discovery in a non-dealer market

The increasing popularity of non-dealer security markets that offer automated, computer-based, continuous trading reflects a presumption that institutionally-set trading sessions are economically obsolete. This theoretical paper investigates the effect of the trading frequency, a key feature of the trading mechanism, on the efficiency of price discovery in a non-dealer market. By tracing the market pricing error to the correlation structures of arriving information and pricing errors of individual traders, the effect of diverging expectations on error-based and overall return volatility is isolated. The analysis reveals that, due to a portfolio effect, an increase in the trading time interval has contradictory effects on the portion of return volatility stemming from pricing errors. The greater accumulation of information increases error-based return volatility, but the greater volume and number of traders per session have the opposite effect. The net effect on overall return volatility can go either way. It is found that the return volatility of heavily traded securities is likely to be minimized under continuous trading, but that of thinly traded securities may be minimized under discrete trading at moderate time intervals. The latter is more likely to occur the greater is the divergence of expectations among traders. These findings challenge the presumption that automated continuous trading in a non-dealer market is more efficient than discrete trading for all securities, regardless of trading volume. The findings are applicable to all economies, but have special importance for developing countries where typically a single market is dominated by small issues and a low volume of trade. As a by-product of the analysis, it is shown how to correct the biased estimate of inter-session price volatility when observations are less frequent than the trading sessions themselves.     

Discretionary accruals: signalling or earnings management in Australia?

We investigate the signalling effect of discretionary accruals (DAC). Although we find that discretionary accruals are insignificantly related to contemporaneous stock returns, we uncover that income‐increasing discretionary accruals of GAAP‐complying growth firms are significantly and positively related to contemporaneous stock returns. Furthermore, we find that this positive effect is stronger among firms with better corporate governance mechanisms, such as Board of Directors Independence, Audit Committee Independence and Large Shareholders’ Ownership. In addition to contemporaneous stock returns, we also find similar results with the future increase in dividends. Our findings are consistent with the argument that corporate governance can enhance the signalling effect of reported earnings of GAAP‐complying growth firms.     

Feeder Cattle Options: Where’s the Beef?

Feeder cattle is one of the most important commodities in the livestock industry worldwide. Nonetheless, beef production is subject to many uncertainties; therefore, the risk management tools that agents use must be efficient. This article discusses the financial options available in the Brazilian futures market to feeder cattle producers and describes the best risk pricing model to determine the option premium. Our results consider several option pricing models and different types of volatility. The best pricing is obtained with the model of Bjerksund and Stensland with the implied volatility.     

Students’ perception of CSR and its influence on business performance. A multiple mediation analysis

Firm managers play an important role in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. Education is emerging as the key factor in developing a sense of moral responsibility amongst the business students who will eventually become company managers and decision makers. The aim of this research is, thus, twofold. First, to analyze the existence of a direct positive correlation between university students’ perception of CSR and its impact on business performance; and second, to examine the extent to which two factors (advantages brought by CSR and responsibilities toward stakeholders) act as mediation variables in the aforementioned correlation. The analysis was performed with a sample of 390 business‐related university students. Amongst the potential contributions made by this study we can highlight the possibility of knowing future managers’ way of thinking and of knowing the aspects where educational centers might improve their CSR teaching.     

It Is Time to Reexamine the Role of Stock Markets in Developing Economies

Although the many perceived benefits of a stock market may have led to their rapid formation and development aspirations across economies, emerging findings that stock markets may not be as useful as previously thought, even a detraction in the case of some developing economies, raises the question of how practical stock markets may be in different situations. In light of the foregoing and using Fiji as an example, this study argues that it is indeed time to reexamine the role of stock markets in developing economies with a view to restructuring the financial system for improved efficiency and effectiveness.     

A Subcultural Analysis of the Brazilian Knowledge Industry: When Nation,Industry, and Organizational Cultures Collide

ABSTRACT

This exploratory research seeks to better understand the relationship between national and industry culture, concentrating particularly on the case of the Brazilian knowledge industry. Perceptions of real and ideal corporate values were obtained from 98 professional and managerial staff from Brazil and 40 from the United States. The results were also compared to those of a multi-industry Brazilian sample reported in Nelson and Gopalan (2003 Nelson , R. E. , and Gopalan , S. ( 2003 ). “Do Organizational Cultures Replicate National Cultures?” Organization Studies , Vol. 4 , pp. 115 – 152 . [Google Scholar]). The Brazilian knowledge industry respondents' view of their organizational culture was much more favorable than the US knowledge industry respondents' perceptions. The Brazilian knowledge industry sample also contained unique subcultures that varied by employment regime and favorably reflected on the industry's ability to adapt to modern trends. This configuration of results does not clearly favor any of the major theories of organizational culture but suggests a complex pattern of interaction between country, industry, industry position, and employment regime. The results do, however, suggest that interaction effects of country by industry may be much stronger than the main effects of either industry or nation.     

A two‐sector neo‐Kaleckian model of growth and distribution: Investment allocation and evolutionary dynamics

This paper focuses on the two‐sector neo‐Kaleckian model of growth and distribution that was developed by Dutt (1990) and challenged by Park (1995). We develop a variant of this model, focusing on the supply‐side to solve the overdetermination problem that was raised by Park. Finally, we introduce evolutionary dynamics to model the investment flows between the capital and consumer goods sectors. In this setup, the sectoral profit rates and the size of capital stocks wield an essential role upon the entrepreneur’s decision on which sector to invest in. This model is perfectly determined and it generates a stable evolutionary equilibrium over the long term.     

How does the theory of consumption values contribute to place identity and sustainable consumption?

The importance of consumers’ role in sustainable consumption is reflected in the vision of the Sustainable Development Education Panel: To educate consumers to make informed consumption decisions, to take responsibility for their actions and to realize the impact of consumption decisions on future generations. However, educating and informing consumers alone is unlikely to change deeply entrenched unsustainable consumption behaviour. A multi‐faceted approach is required – enforcing sustainable development initiatives through legislation, promoting corporate social responsibility programs on the part of business, and (most importantly), supporting communities that engage in sustainable consumption. This study examines the proposition that individuals who identify with their community (i.e. the residential suburb or a locality where identity is understood geographically) are more likely to engage in sustainable consumption. Specifically, it examines how consumption value (i.e. the perceived value of living in a particular residential suburb) contributes to place identity and to environmental attitudes and sustainable consumption behaviour. Structural equation modelling is used to verify the conceptual model using data from a telephone survey of 561 residents from two inner city suburbs in Auckland, New Zealand. The results support the proposition that environmental attitude and sustainable consumption behaviour is enhanced by consumption values through place identity. Residents who enjoy living in their community, value a clean and healthy environment and believe their suburbs are unique tend to develop a stronger identity with their residential suburb, and are more positive towards sustainable consumption. The results have important implications for social marketers, property marketers and city councils who strive to encourage sustainable consumption among its citizens.