Laundry practices: line-drying and load characteristics

The authors conducted an exploratory study on laundry practices including: contents and number of laundry loads, use of line-drying, laundry items that are line-dried, and availability of equipment for line-drying. The participants dried fewer loads than previously reported in the literature and laundered different items. Subjects used line-drying for selected textiles, viewed line-drying as time consuming and indicated they lacked equipment for line-drying. The respondents did not thoroughly comprehend the meaning of ‘line dry’. From the results, the authors concluded that additional research is needed to identify a standard or typical laundry load. Research is necessary to up-date the body of knowledge, and educators need to inform consumers of the benefits and concerns of line-drying.     

Effect of Comparable Worth Policies on Earnings

The initial impact of comparable worth legislation on male and female earnings is estimated using five public sector comparable worth studies. We find that women would earn an average 17 per cent more if a comparable worth policy were implemented and men would earn an average 1 per cent more. In addition, about half of the earnings gap between women and men in the sample jurisdictions would be eliminated. We also discuss the limitations of previous analyses by examining Aldrich and Buchele's recent empirical work.     

THE DYNAMICS OF THE LIABILITY OF FOREIGNNESS: A GLOBAL STUDY OF SURVIVAL IN FINANCIAL SERVICES

We study the impact of ‘foreignness’ on survival in interbank currency trading worldwide over the period 1974–93. In particular, we develop hypotheses on the behavior of the liability of foreignness over time, and on the consequences of evolving sources of firm-level competitive advantage on this liability. We test these hypotheses on the population of 2667 market-making trading rooms located in 47 countries worldwide that either existed in 1974 or entered the industry between 1974 and 1993. The results show that there is a liability of foreignness, and that it changes over time. Further, strategic and organizational factors such as the adoption of technology by these firms and their mode of internal control significantly influenced survival, as did location-related factors such as the intensity of local and foreign competition. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Line-drying versus machine-drying: energy consumption comparison

The purpose of this study was to determine the physical energy utilized in machine-drying and the human energy utilized in line-drying with a standard test laundry load in order to demonstrate the benefits of making a trade-off between mechanized energy and human energy utilized in drying laundry. Comparatively, only a small amount of metabolic energy was utilized in line-drying. Line-drying laundry over an extended period of time, along with similar trade-offs with other household tasks to use more human energy and less mechanized energy, would save energy resources and would contribute to physical health by increasing exercise levels. All data collection occurred at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.     

Scrip as private money,monetary monopoly,and the rent‐seeking state in Britain

Scrip—promissory notes payable in goods at company stores—was issued by employers to pay workers, and was an important component of British money during the industrial revolution. As late as the third quarter of the nineteenth century, scrip issued by coal firms, which represented the foregone demand for official currency, was at least 9 to 24 per cent of the value of English country or Scottish banknote issues. In some areas, scrip was 38 per cent of the total wages paid. The state's suppression of this private currency to defend its seigniorage rents was in part the motivation behind the prohibition of the truck system in 1831.     

The Effects of Guidance Frequency and Guidance Goal on Managerial Decisions

We conduct an experiment to examine the effects of guidance frequency (frequent vs. infrequent) and guidance goal (accuracy vs. meet/beat vs. truthful) on managers’ operating decisions. We find that frequent guiders sacrifice total earnings for quarterly earnings predictability irrespective of their guidance goals. Furthermore, when guidance is infrequent, guiders with accuracy goals opt for quarterly earnings predictability over total earnings more often than do guiders with either meet/beat goals or truthful goals. These findings have implications for regulators and investors in terms of the unintended consequences of requesting frequent earnings guidance. Further, while managers may perceive that accuracy goals can help their firms establish forecasting and reporting reputations, we show that accuracy goals may result in dysfunctional internal managerial decisions, particularly when guidance is issued infrequently.     

Fair Value Accounting and Managers' Hedging Decisions

We conduct two experiments with experienced accountants to investigate how fair value accounting affects managers’ real economic decisions. In experiment 1, we find that participants are more likely to make suboptimal decisions (e.g., forgo economically sound hedging opportunities) when both the economic and fair value accounting impact information is presented than when only the economic impact information is presented, or when both the economic and historical cost accounting impact information is presented. This adverse effect of fair value accounting is more likely when the price volatility of the hedged asset is higher, which is a situation where, paradoxically, hedging is more beneficial. We find that the effect is mediated by participants’ relative considerations of economic factors versus accounting factors (e.g., earnings volatility). Experiment 2 shows that enhancing salience of economic information or separately presenting net income not from fair value remeasurements reduces the adverse effect of fair value accounting. Our findings are informative to standard setters in their debate on the efficacy of fair value accounting.     

Using the Balanced Scorecard to Manage Intangible Assets in A Sino-Foreign Joint Venture

The application of the balanced scorecard as a performance measurement tool to convert intangible assets into tangible outcomes is examined using a case study of a Sino-US joint venture — Xinan JV. The balanced scorecard is described in terms of the specific measures that were used to manage various innovation and human resource development processes and initiatives to help the company respond to its strategic challenges. We present some impressions of the managers of the company on how the balanced scorecard facilitated the management of intangibles in the joint venture.