Stock price informativeness and analyst coverage

We examine whether more analyst coverage translates into more informative stock prices and apply this to both developed and emerging markets. We measure price informativeness using the association between current stock returns and future earnings. We argue that more informative stock prices contain more information about future earnings. Results indicate that analysts' activities do not contribute to the impounding of future earnings information into current stock prices, in accordance with the view that analysts are outsiders who do not have full access to firm‐level information. We also find that analysts specialize according to industry and that “industry expertise” is limited to developed countries. Overall, our evidence is consistent with the explanation that analysts focus on gathering and mapping industry‐ and market‐level information (macroeconomic information) into stock prices. Copyright © 2013 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A meta‐analysis of the UTAUT model: Eleven years later

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) has been widely used to investigate factors influencing the adoption and use of information systems and technologies (IS/IT). However, studies using UTAUT are not conclusive in terms of statistical significance, direction, and magnitude. Through a meta‐analysis of empirical studies on UTAUT from 2003 to 2013, we determine how parsimonious, accurate, and robust UTAUT is at predicting acceptance and use of technology. A meta‐analysis of 74 publications reveals that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence explain IS/IT adoption, while behavioural intention is the most often measured dependent variable operationalized as a proxy for system use, supporting the strength of UTAUT as an explanatory model of IS/IT acceptance and use. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Disentangling CEO compensation: A simultaneous examination of time,industry, and firm‐level effects

Despite decades of research, how CEO compensation is determined remains an enigma. Drawing on agency, managerial hegemony, and institutional theoretical perspectives, we use hierarchical linear modelling—a multilevel analytic technique—to examine how firm‐, industry‐, and time‐level effects drive CEO compensation in US corporations. Results show that while cash salary is mostly driven by firm‐specific factors, equity‐based compensation responds to time‐level effects with firm‐ and industry‐level effects playing a marginal role. We argue that such evidence is consistent with the institutionalization of the CEO compensation determination process through the widespread adoption of benchmark peer‐group comparisons. Such practices underlie economy‐wide changes in CEO compensation that are increasingly disconnected from other fundamental firm‐ or industry‐specific factors. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Funding conditions for aid effectiveness: A mixed blessing for the sustainable development of host‐country‐national employees

This paper explores whether—and how—aid effectiveness funding conditions impact the human resource development of host‐country national (HCN) employees. To investigate this relationship, I conducted a phenomenological study with 31 participants from three international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs). Results suggest that the pressure toward funds accountability brings mixed blessings: From a staffing perspective, more HCNs are being hired instead of expatriates, building local capacity. However, vital training and performance review functions are cast as inefficient overheads. The paper concludes with a conceptual framework, practical strategies for INGOs and donor governments, and directions for larger scale empirical research. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Akbar's multiculturalism: lessons for diversity management in the 21st century

This paper challenges the hegemony of US‐centric perspectives in the diversity management literature by explaining how non‐Western histories and cultures may provide alternative contexts for understanding and managing diversity. In pursuit of this, the paper describes how Muslim ruler Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar conceptualized multiculturalism in 16th century India, and how his principles of sulh‐i‐kul, rah‐i‐aql, and rawa‐i‐rozi may be adopted to develop a sociopolitical environment conducive to managing cultural diversity in organizations, an environment currently lacking even in the majority of democratic countries in the world today. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adjusting the Seasonality of Milk Shipments in Canada: Problems, Economic Impacts and Potential Policies

High-summer / low-winter patterns of milk production and shipments (or seasonality of milk shipments) give rise to capacity utilization problems and attendant additional costs in the transportation, processing and distribution sectors of the dairy industry. While it is technically possible to modify the natural seasonal pattern, it may not be economically optimal to do so. This may in part explain the highly seasonal pattern of industrial milk shipments in Canada. and may suggest the need for policy incentives to induce an y adjustment. Linear programming models were used to analyze a small sample of highly seasonal dairy farms in Ontario. It was found that uniform shipment patterns would reduce farm profits only marginally (up to $240). Profit-maximizing scenarios were associated with even greater levels of seasonality than actually existed on these farms. Policy measures such as quarterly quotas and winter subsidy premiums were found to be effective in reducing the seasonality of milk shipments. It was concluded that these or alternative policy incentives would be necessary for inducing a uniform milk shipment pattern in Canada, in view of the negative impacts on farm profits of adopting a uniform pattern. Les modèles saisonniers de la production laitiére et de ses livraisons donnenl lieu à des problèmes ?utilisation de capacilé et des coiits supplementaires dans les secteurs de la production, de la distribution el du transport de ?induslrie laitière. Pourtant il sepeul qu'il soil sans but lucralif de modifier ce mo?ele naturel. Ceci peul expliquer en partie le caractére extrémemenl saisonnier des livraisons de lait induslriel au Canada, et peul suggérer également le besoin ?uliliser des stimulants de politique agricole pour causer de ?ajustement. Cet exposé présenle ?application de modèles deprogrammation linéaire à un petit nombre de fermes laitières onlariennes, qui son! caractérisées par une production extremémenl saisonnière, à permis de constater les résultats suivants: ?adoption ?un échelonnemenl uniforme des livraisons tout au long de ?année diminuerail les profits des exploitationns agricoles non plus que 240 dollars; les scénarios les plus profitables sont ceux qui sonl les plus saisonniers– on n'a pas vu pourlanl de lels scénarios aux fermes analysées; ?utilisation des mesures de politique agricole telles que des quotas trimeslriels el des primes à la production hivernale est éfficace pourfaire plus uniformes les livraisons laitières. Finalement, on conclul que des stimulants de politique agricole seraient nécéssaires pour développer au Canada un modèle de production laitière caractérisé par un étalement uniforme des livraisons de lair tout au long de ?année, el ceci à cause des effets négatifs ?un tel modèle sur les profits des exploitations agricoles.     

Futuros transnacionales del derecho internacional del trabajo. Introducción

Se sitúa aquí el número monográfico 2020-4 de la RIT, sobre los futuros transnacionales del derecho internacional del trabajo, en el contexto del centenario de la OIT y del reto de lograr el objetivo del trabajo decente en un nuevo siglo y bajo presiones transnacionales específicas. La autora sostiene que el derecho internacional del trabajo, como núcleo normativo del derecho transnacional del trabajo, puede desempeñar un papel crucial para ayudar a los múltiples actores involucrados, entre ellos, la OIT en sus funciones normativa y de coordinación, a afrontar el reto y remodelar la arquitectura jurídica transnacional.     

La segregación ocupacional por horas de trabajo en Europa

En este artículo se cuantifican los niveles de segregación ocupacional entre el trabajo a tiempo parcial y a tiempo completo según los datos de la Encuesta Europea de Población Activa para quince países europeos, tratando de identificar algunos determinantes de la segregación mediante un análisis de regresión con tres grupos de indicadores (cantidad de empleo, calidad del empleo y factores institucionales). Por lo general, la segregación ocupacional por horas de trabajo es más alta para los hombres que para las mujeres y más alta para los trabajadores jóvenes que para los adultos. Así como entre los hombres la segregación se correlaciona solamente con la cantidad de empleo, en el caso de las mujeres adultas y los trabajadores jóvenes inciden variables asociadas a los tres grupos de indicadores.     

Information Asymmetry and Voluntary SFAS 157 Fair Value Disclosures by Bank Holding Companies During the 2007 Financial Crisis

We hand‐collect SFAS 157 voluntary fair value disclosures of 18 bank holding companies. The SEC's Division of Corporate Finance likely targeted these entities in 2008 through their “Dear CFO” letters in which they requested specific, additional disclosure items. We collect disclosures that match the SEC recommendations and create eight common factor disclosure variables to examine the effect of such disclosures on information asymmetry. We find that disclosure variables about the use of broker quotes or prices from pricing services and the use of market indices and illiquidity adjustments are related to lower information asymmetry. However, disclosure variables about valuation techniques and asset‐backed securities are related to greater information asymmetry. We also document that disclosure complexity, and disclosure tone (uncertainty and litigious) is related to greater information asymmetry. These findings are consistent with criticism that corporate disclosures are voluminous; management may obfuscate unfavorable information which in turn increases market participants’ assessment of uncertainty associated with the fair value measures. We caveat that the setting of the financial crisis and a small sample size may limit the ability to generalize these inferences to other time periods or other financial firms.     

Corrupción como proceso organizacional: comprendiendo la lógica de la desnormalización de la corrupción

This article discusses the basic assumptions of an individualist vision on corruption. A different argument based on “social density” of the phenomenon is proposed instead: the process of normalization of corruption. Under this umbrella, corruption is a political concept that looks to impose a particular vision on what are “right” behaviors based on a sharp and unrealistic separation of the public and private sphere. A review of the organizational literature on corruption is developed, with the aim of understanding how organizational processes of socialization triggers behaviors that make corrupt acts to appear as “normal” under the organizational logic. Persons find themselves in a “slippery slope”, generating agreements and social dynamics that are able to produce corrupt logics under the normal life of an organization. A plea for discussing the social processes needed to “un-normalize” corruption is defended a conceptualization that goes beyond an individualist and moralist vision of the phenomenon.