Commentary on: 'Accountability of accounting educators and the rhythm of the university: resistance strategies for postmodern blues'

Abstract

This Teaching Note reports on the support available in textbooks for graphicacy that will help students understand the complexities of graphical displays. Graphical displays play a significant role in financial reporting, and studies have found evidence of measurement distortion and selection bias. To understand the complexities of graphical displays, students need a sound understanding of graphicacy and support from the textbooks available to them to develop that understanding. The Teaching Note reports on a survey that examined the textbooks available to students attending two Scottish universities. The support of critical graphicacy skills was examined in conjunction with textbook characteristics. The survey, which was not restricted to textbooks designated as required reading, examined the textbooks for content on data measurement and graphical displays. The findings highlight a lack of support for graphicacy in the textbooks selected. The study concludes that accounting educators need to scrutinize more closely the selection of textbooks and calls for more extensive research into textbooks as a pedagogic tool.     

Can retailers get higher prices for “end-of-life” inventory through online auctions?

Manufacturers and retailers are using online auctions to liquidate excess inventory. Using a field study of 11,879 online auctions, this paper builds upon theories of competitive processes to relate four key seller-controlled variables (starting price, day of close, auction length, and brand) to outcomes of online auction for apparel goods. Results suggest that to obtain a higher percentage of the original retail price, retailers should start with a lower price and feature national brands. These and other findings are discussed and a number of future research topics are offered.     

Health care rationing: the Oregon experiment

Oregon Medicaid reforms, passed by the state legislature in 1989, examined in light of Oregon's recent history of attempts to grapple continually rising health care costs.     

The Right Road to Monetary Union

How should European monetary coordination develop? John Chown and Geoffrey Wood argue that the European central banks should be forced to compete in providing the best monetary services.     

Investment sequencing in the brick industry: an application of grounded theory

Since the work of George Richardson on the problem of investmentcoordination, the literature has focused on explaining equilibriumin investment games and neglected the problem of how investmentsare coordinated. This paper reports the findings of a case studyof the brick industry which used grounded theory techniquesto develop a new analysis of investment coordination. Our mainfindings indicate that, despite the high cost of excess capacityand the very clear signalling of investment intentions, brickfirms are reluctant to stand back and delay their own investmentswhen a rival firm is expanding. The fact that for the most partexcess investment is avoided is explained by reference to firms'heterogeneity and constraints to investment.     

Environmental social controls and capital investments: Australian evidence

Environmental social controls (ESCs) such as mandatory disclosure, regulations, subsidies, and stakeholder opinion are intended to improve firm environmental performance. This paper reports ESC importance to Australian financial managers in making capital investment decisions. A decision‐making experiment showed managers to be most responsive to stakeholder opinion (42 per cent), followed by subsidization (26 per cent) and regulatory cost (22 per cent). Mandatory disclosure has very little influence (10 per cent). ESC interaction effects are limited so coordination of ESC policy is not a primary concern. High degrees of managerial self‐insight suggest policy changes would be enhanced by close consultations with the managers involved.     

Did decimalization hurt institutional investors?

We examine institutional trading costs around the move to penny size ticks in 2001 (i.e., decimalization). We find that overall trading costs declined, with improvements in most partitions across order size, firm size, and manager style. Improvements were most pronounced for orders that were executed over multiple days and for stocks where the minimum tick sizes were likely to have been binding. However, costs did increase for orders executed within a single day. The improvements we document contrast with changes accompanying the reduction of minimum ticks to sixteenths in 1997 though, in both cases, results suggest that more patient traders fare relatively better than those that demand immediacy.