Debt Financing and Earnings Management: An Internal Capital Market Perspective

This paper investigates the role internal capital markets play in mitigating earnings management of group firms. We predict that the funding advantages of internal capital markets from business affiliates obscure solvency problems resulting from higher leverage for individual firms within a group, which in turn mitigates their incentives for earnings management. Using Taiwanese firms as a sample, we provide evidence that is consistent with such a prediction. In particular, we show that higher group profitability reduces its member firms’ sensitivity of earnings management to debt levels. Among business groups, earnings management in pyramidal groups is less sensitive to debt levels. We also find that the debt‐abnormal accrual curve becomes smoother as group profitability increases when considering the non‐monotonic relationship between firm leverage and earnings management.     

Modes of goods acquisition in deprived neighbourhoods

The aim of this paper is to show that the extent to which British consumers acquire their goods new through formal retail outlets is not as all-pervasive as some might believe. Analysing how 200 households in relatively deprived areas of Southampton last acquired six goods (furniture, DIY tools, clothes, fridge, cooker and car), it finds that a large proportion of goods were acquired either informally and/or second-hand, especially amongst households excluded from the formal labour market, due to their financial circumstances. Given this reliance on informal and second-hand modes of goods acquisition, it concludes that public policy should seek to develop initiatives for the distribution of such goods, especially electrical goods, in a more regulated environment. Without such developments, the socially excluded will remain dependent on modes of acquisition in which there is little or no regulation of the quality of the products.     

Cowboys,Indians and Perky Waitresses: Contesting Tourist Myths of the American West

Emily Post, an upper-middle class American divorcée, not yet the byword for correct social behaviour, as her Blue Book of Etiquette was to be published seven years later, set off from New York in April 1915 to motor to San Francisco. Armed with many misconceptions about the Wild West, she took two evening dresses, a block and tackle and a solid silver picnic set, and planned to see how far she could go in comfort. Her attitudes changed dramatically as she drove west, and she wrote perceptively about the disjunction between myth and reality and the inherent theatricality of the tourist experience. This paper analyses three incidents in her journey: the meeting with a taciturn cowboy who hailed from Massachusetts, her assessment of the vaudeville nature of a Native American dance performance, and her sensation of being behind the scenes at a theatre as a trainload of passengers were served by the legendary Harvey Girls. The creation of the myth of the Old West was well under way in 1915; this micro-study of an elite traveller's reactions suggests that the myth did not go uncontested.     

For Rigour in Organizational Management Theory Research

Rigour is required in examining the empirical validity of theories in organizational management, and is often considered to be the opposite of creativity in the development of knowledge about managing organizations. In this article, we argue that rigour is necessary in the enterprise of organizational management research. Moreover, it can actually be a contributor to creativity. The issue is not rigour versus creativity, but rather how rigour can foster creativity. We show that rigour in both theory and methodology can foster creativity. Rigour in theory provides the logical thinking that is the foundation that allows the development of sound theory. This can be achieved in various ways, including theory building, mathematical modelling, causal modelling, and theory analysis. Rigour in methodology can assist creativity in quantitative integration. The contribution of rigour to creativity is evidenced by the recently created statistico‐organizational theory and other new advancements in the field of structural contingency research.     

Currency‐Protected Swaps and Swaptions with Nonzero Spreads in a Multicurrency LMM

Despite the fact that currency‐protected swaps and swaptions are widely traded in the marketplace, pricing models for zero‐spread swaps, and swaptions have rarely been examined in the extant literature. This study presents a multicurrency LIBOR market model and uses it to derive pricing formulas for currency‐protected swaps and swaptions with nonzero spreads. The resulting pricing formulas are shown to be feasible and tractable for practical implementation and their hedging strategies are also provided. Our pricing formulas provide prices close to those computed from Monte Carlo simulation, but involve far less computation time, and thereby offering almost instant price quotes to clients and daily marking‐to‐market trading books, and facilitating efficient risk management of trading positions.     

Eco-labeling motorcoach operators in the North American travel tour industry: analyzing the role of tour operators

Tourist transportation is a major contributor of emissions and environmental pollutants. Eco-labels can encourage more sustainable tourism by informing consumers’ purchasing decisions, while utilizing market forces to initiate environmental responsibility among competing firms. The Green Coach Certification pilot eco-label program was introduced to the motorcoach industry in 2009 as part of a university research program. Although the literature addresses relationships between end-user consumers and eco-labels, little research has been published on mid-supply chain actors and tourism eco-labels. Tour operators are intermediaries between end-users and motorcoach operators and are important potential consumers of eco-labeled transportation services. To understand the role of tour companies as both consumers and providers of green services and eco-labeled products, a survey was administered to North American tour operators. Results demonstrate tour operator interest in a tourism transportation eco-label; however, this interest may be secondary to traditional considerations like price, reputation for safety and service, and previous partnerships. Ninety percent of tour operators indicated that environmental practices held some importance when choosing a transportation provider; approximately 50% said they would pay between 1% and 5% more for an eco-labeled coach company. Findings have important implications for the design and implementation of eco-labeling programs for sustainable tourism and transportation.     

Consumer Magazines—An Efficient Medium for Reaching Organizational Buyers

Network television and consumer magazines were compared with trade publications for cost efficiency in delivering individuals who influence organizational purchase decisions of $1,000 or more. Consumer magazines were found to deliver the total organizational buyer segment and various subsegments classified by industry and product category of the purchase more efficiently than the trade magazines.     

Entrepreneurship in the informal economy: commercial or social entrepreneurs?

Recent research has revealed that a large proportion of entrepreneurs start-up their ventures operating on a wholly or partially off-the-books basis. Until now, it has been commonly assumed that those who operate in the informal economy are exclusively commercial entrepreneurs. They are assumed to be rational economic actors who weigh up the benefits of operating off-the-books against the costs of being caught and decide to operate in this manner. The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically this a priori assumption. Reporting evidence from a 2005/6 survey involving face-to-face interviews with 102 informal entrepreneurs in Moscow in Russia, the finding is that such entrepreneurs are not purely commercially driven. Examining their rationales, informal entrepreneurs are found to range from purely rational economic actors pursuing for-profit logics through to purely social entrepreneurs pursuing purely social logics, with the majority somewhere in-between combining both for-profit and social rationales. Neither do their logics remain static over time. What begins as a commercial entrepreneurial venture may become more socially oriented over time or vice versa. So too do their logics vary socio-spatially. Those living in deprived populations are more socially-orientated, whilst those in relatively affluent populations are comparatively more profit-driven. The outcome is a call for a more nuanced explanation of the complex and heterogeneous logics of informal entrepreneurs.     

The career path to instructional design project management: an expert perspective from the US professional services sector

There are well‐documented competency standards for instructional/training designers and for project managers. However, there is little research about what skills and abilities employers expect from those seeking to become instructional/training design project managers, particularly within specific industry sectors. Focusing on the US professional services sector, the sector in which firms have a global impact and in which human capital is the largest asset, this article addresses the ‘must have’ skills/competencies, characteristics and organizational conditions associated with career advancement from instructional designer to instructional design project manager by means of an expert study that is grounded in an in‐depth literature review. In addition to enhancing knowledge of instructional designers’ competency development for career advancement in the professional services sector, this study also offers some concrete recommendations and implications for research and practice.