Using a dual-frame design to improve phone surveys on political attitudes: developing a weighting strategy for limited external information in Hong Kong

Quality & Quantity - In recent years, rapid increases in mobile phone ownership and decreases in landline users have led to potential biases in landline phone survey estimations. Mobile-only...     

The fleeting nature of permanent reinvestment: Accounting for the undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries

Over the last decade, an increasing percentage of the profits reported by U.S. corporations were earned by their foreign subsidiaries and retained outside the United States resulting in the deferral of income taxes. The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 provided a temporary federal tax incentive to remit such earnings, which resulted in the repatriation of $140 billion by the 30 firms comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average. An analysis of the financial reporting disclosures made by these firms reveals that a tax expense was not fully recognized on a substantial portion of the earnings until repatriation because of an exception for foreign reinvestments deemed to be essentially permanent in duration. The implications of the currently acceptable accounting for undistributed foreign earnings are discussed as well as recommendations to improve the relevancy and reliability of the disclosures required for this exception to comprehensive recognition of deferred taxes.     

Survivor Bonds: A Comment on Blake and Burrows

This article offers a critical assessment of the “survivor bonds” (SBs) proposal recently put forward by Blake and Burrows, which calls for the government to issue bonds whose coupon payments are contingent on the proportions of retirees surviving to particular ages. It suggests that the proposal has considerable merit and discusses the circumstances in which SBs would be useful risk management tools for insurance companies. It also discusses alternatives such as reinsurance, hedging with life contracts, dynamic hedging, and other forms of survivor derivative. Finally, it evaluates and rejects the argument that SBs should be issued by the state.     

The 1986 U.K. Insolvency and Company Directors' Disqualification Acts: An evaluation of their impacts upon small firm financing decisions

This paper examines the potential impact of the 1986 U.K. Insolvency and Company Directors' Disqualification Acts on small firm financing decisions. With the aid of a simplified Black and Scholes (1973) option model of financing decisions, the paper illustrates how the 1986 legislation reduces the incentives for owner-managers to gamble with creditor claims, particularly in situations of financial distress, by making them personally liable for unmet claims and/or by disqualifying them from holding office for a fixed period. For instance, example 3 in the paper shows the conflict that could result from the owner-manager reducing his/her opening equity position and it further argues how the legislation should act to alleviate the situation. It remains, however, an empirical question as to whether this reduction in creditors' exposure to the risk of uncompensated wealth transfers will ultimately result in a significantly greater number of company liquidations and disqualifications, particularly during a prolonged economic downturn, or an improved/less costly supply of finance to small firms.     

Building Brands through Brand Alliances: Does a Second Ally Help?

Several papers have been published demonstrating the positive effects a single, reputable ally has on evaluations of a focal brand. Interestingly, little research has been published examining the effects of multiple brand allies. We examine the effect of an alliance with two, one, or zero well-known brand allies on evaluations of a previously unknown focal brand. The presence of a single brand ally significantly increased perceived quality and hedonic and utilitarian attitudes. While multiple alliances improved focal brand evaluations relative to the no ally condition, the second ally did not increase evaluations relative to the single ally condition.     

Management Buyouts and Firm–Level Productivity: Evidence from a Panel of UK Manufacturing Firms

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the productivity effects of UK management buyouts (MBOs) over the period 1986–1997. It is the first study to use an augmented production function approach in order to determine and quantify: the Hicks–neutral productivity, the marginal productivity of labour, and the marginal productivity of capital effects of MBOs. The main findings are consistent with MBOs providing incentive and control systems that lead to improved firm–level productivity in the post–buyout organisation via reduced agency costs, debt bonding, and monitoring by buyout specialists.     

Issues in Marketing Online Insurance Products: An Exploratory Look at Agents' Use, Attitudes, and Views of the Impact of the Internet

This article uses a survey of insurance agents in Florida to examine the manner in which insurance agents use and view the Internet as a method of marketing insurance products. The results of the survey suggest that the agents’ use of the Web and their attitudes toward the Web do not vary by demographic characteristics (including age, education level, gender, and income). In addition, the agents’ perception of the Internet as a threat (rather than an opportunity) does not vary by age or education level and is not correlated with their attitudes toward the use of the Web. However, while Internet marketing and other means of direct selling are viewed by the agents as equal threats to their sales, the agents believe that such marketing by other companies is a greater threat than that done by the companies they represent.     

Common Agency and Partial Cooperation

A modified common agency model is used to investigate the impact of partial cooperation on agent incentives. In the case where principals move simultaneously, it is shown that partial cooperation is self-defeating from the organizing principals' perspective despite a strengthening of agent incentives and effort. In the second scenario, where the organizing principals have a first-mover advantage, it is demonstrated that not only are individual cooperating principals better off but the outcome in terms of agent incentives and effort is constrained Pareto efficient. This latter scenario illustrates the possibility that partial cooperation, when coupled with a strategic advantage, improves efficiency.     

Mature Australian consumers' adoption and consumption of self-service banking technologies

The slow diffusion of self-service banking technologies (SSBTs) into the mature consumer market necessitates research to understand better this growing section of the population and the diversity that exists within this market. This research analyses the 50+ market through a segmentation approach based on the level of use of SSBTs. Three segments were identified: non-users, low users and medium-to-high users of SSBTs; these are profiled by frequency of use and demographic variables. The medium-to-high user segment embraces a range of SSBTs and uses credit cards to facilitate their financial activities. Non-users and some low users prefer the customary way of conducting transactions and enjoy the personal interaction with the bank employee. These two segments do, however, have a moderate level of credit card use. Finally, a small percentage of diffusion discontinuance was identified in this study of the mature consumer market.