Corporate director liability and monitoring preferences

An important issue in the regulation of corporate behavior is its impact on the monitoring configuration selected by top management. In this article, we provide evidence consistent with the notion that the recent trend toward audit committee formation, and the movement toward Big-Eight auditors, are responses to increased legal exposure of the board of directors, notably stemming from the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. The costs associated with changes in monitoring configurations are also considered. In particular, it is argued that auditor assistance can substantially reduce the cost of audit committee formation. Because external auditors may have differential incentives to support audit committee formation, a hypothesis linking auditor identity and audit committee formation is offered. Recent auditor changes and audit committee formations of American Stock Exchange companies are examined to provide positive evidence for the theory. The data reveal a clear trend to form audit committees, and a movement to Big-Eight auditors. Underscoring the importance of auditor involvement, it is shown that audit committees were more likely to be formed given recent selection of a new Big-Eight auditor.     

Significant Issues for the Future of Product Innovation

What's happening in the world of product innovation? What are the tough issues that managers are facing? And what's going to happen in the remaining years of this decade? In this article, several members of the Editorial Board of The Journal of Product Innovation Management offer their ideas about where the important problems lie. This is the fodder for a good round table discussion and through the medium of this journal we'll engage in such a discussion in this and a subsequent issue.     

Integrating Product Innovation and Market Development to Strengthen Long-Term Planning

The steel industries of Europe and the United States are among the worst casualties of the industrial turmoil that has shaken the economic order during the past ten years, Other heavy manufacturing industries can claim similar suffering. In this article, Bela Gold draws on his long years of experience in studying the technology, productivity, and competitive structure of such industries. He suggests that traditional planning approaches won't haul heavy industry onto a winning track. A new long-term approach, based on an integration of product innovation and market development, is needed to meet the changing pressures these industries are facing.     

Hedonic theory,marketing research,and the analysis of complex goods

It is argued that marketing people may benefit from adopting the hedonic methodology used by economists, especially when analysing price/quality relationships, but also in order to make better evaluations of differentiated products. Hence the paper introduces the theoretical and empirical aspects of hedonic analysis and gives some suggestions for the improvement of the econometric analysis of price/quality relationships. In addition, the application of the hedonic methodology is shown on a sample of 528 Danish house transactions, and the advantages of hedonic analysis are demonstrated.     

The possible new shape of accounting in the United States

The Dingell Hearings currently under way in the House of Representatives may be the most likely opportunity for a major alteration in the structure of accounting control in the United States since the passage of the Securities Acts in 1933–1934. One should assume that the subcommittee is serious about its objectives of providing for tighter SEC control over the accounting function and for increasing the effectiveness of auditing. In the following pages, I will offer my views on the crucial issues being considered by the subcommittee looking at the SEC and the accountants, and I will conjecture on the possible alternatives for congressional action. Finally, I will speculate on what these changes might mean to the structure of accounting practice and government regulatory activity, and I will make suggestions regarding some possible areas of future research into accounting institutions and policy.     

Effective selling approaches to buyers' objections

Approaches for responding to an industrial buyer's indecision and price objections were uncovered. When an industrial buyer refuses to make a purchase decision or objects to price, an effective salesperson will seek understanding of the buyer's indecision, consciously look for common underlying objections, address the buyer's specific concern, and establish a decision deadline for the buyer.     

Financial Evaluation of the Product Line

When decisions are being made about adding or dropping a product, most managers will make a financial evaluation of the product and they may try to get some sense of the riskiness of the decision. They will also probably consider the effect of the add/drop decision on other products in the line. Seldom, however, do they consider the risk of a product mix decision in the context of the risk level of the overall product line. Professors Rabino and Wright argue that product managers should take a leaf from the analytical book of financial analysts and calculate a "product Beta" that shows the impact of the risk of the individual product on the risk of the whole portfolio of products. They also suggest some other ways of sharpening the financial picture in what are often strictly marketing evaluations. This is Professor Rabino's second article in JPIM . As in the previous one he coauthored with Howard Moskowitz, this one adds some interesting analytical methodology to managerial decision making.     

关于“科学主义”问题--“五四”新文化(文学)运动倡导中心的多重对话(下)

本从“科学主义”问题出发，辨析了“五四”新化(学)倡导中心存在着的“S会馆”与“校”和“刊”之间主导话语的不同和不同发展趋向，认为这种不同在“五四”退潮后表现得最为明显。章主要针对“整理国故”、“科玄论战”、“女师大事件”对与科学主义相联系的英美派知识分子进行了分析，基于鲁迅对科学主义的认识，提出了在中国社会变革语境中“科学主义与道德主义是双生物”的观点。