Bouncing Back from Extreme Weather Events: Some Preliminary Findings on Resilience Barriers Facing Small and Medium‐Sized Enterprises

Extreme weather events (EWEs) pose unprecedented threats to modern societies and represent a much‐debated issue strongly interlinked with current development policies. Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), which constitute a driving force of economic growth, employment and total value added, remain highly vulnerable to and ill prepared for such environmental perturbations. This study investigates barriers to SMEs’ resilience to EWEs in an attempt to shed light on enabling factors that can define effective organizational responses to non‐linear environmental stimuli. Relying on structural equation modeling and data gathered from 109 SMEs that recently experienced EWE impacts, we link the general concept of SMEs’ resilience barriers to EWEs with a series of elements to determine specific internal and external factors that contribute the most to EWE resilience. In particular, external barriers of institutional conditions and mechanisms of support and guidance as well as internal barriers of resources and managerial perceptions are found to be the most critical ones in determining resilience. The assessment offers essential research evidence for practitioners on SME management and sets forth linkages with current mechanisms for policy interventions towards an appropriate resilience agenda for SMEs. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Asymmetric information consolidation and price discovery: Inferring bad news from insider sales

Due to the paucity of sources of negative firm‐specific information, US capital markets have more difficulty identifying and incorporating bad news into stock prices than they do good news. Even though insider selling is a potentially important proxy for undisclosed bad news, researchers have difficulty ex ante identifying information‐based sales due to an inability to separate liquidity‐motivated from information‐based insider trades. We hypothesize that when insiders in multiple firms sell shares of one firm in which they are insiders and at the same time buy shares of other insider portfolio firms, the sale is more likely to be information‐based, since the proceeds are reinvested. Conversely, when an insider sells one firm without purchasing others or sells multiple insider firms the sale is likely liquidity‐motivated. We find that insider sales identified as information‐based using this algorithm are followed by significant negative abnormal returns. Information‐based sales are also more likely to be associated with delistings, earnings declines and earnings restatements. Analysts are also more likely to revise their earnings forecasts downwards for these firms. It is thus possible to ex ante identify insider sales with information content. Our results will be of interest to investors and also to regulators designing insider trading rules.     

A conceptual model and research agenda for bidding,planning and delivering Major sport events that lever human rights

In this conceptual article, the authors propose a framework for how progressive human rights outcomes may be obtained in the context of bidding, planning and implementing major sport events (MSEs) through the implementation of four pathways, including good governance, the democratic participation of stakeholders, the formalisation of human rights agendas and the deployment of sensitive urban development. The authors argue that there is a need for adherence to internationally recognised standards, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights if rhetorical statements from MSE awarding bodies and host organisers are to be accountable to a wider set of actors. If researchers and practitioners want to address some of the critical issues related to human rights and MSEs, it is imperative that key actors working in the rights sphere are involved in shaping the research agenda and monitoring its implementation. Academics need to take a proactive approach aimed at achieving both theoretically grounded and practically relevant solutions, with engagement occurring over an extended period of time. This approach, avowedly political and concerned with genuine action, is a key way in which MSE stakeholders can be held to account for their actions in regard to human rights.     

Modelling soccer matches using bivariate discrete distributions with general dependence structure

In this paper copulas are used to generate bivariate discrete distributions. These distributions are fitted to soccer data from the English Premier League. An interesting aspect of these data is that the primary variable of interest, the discrete pair shots-for and shots-against, exhibits negative dependence; thus, in particular, we apply bivariate Poisson-related distributions that allow such dependence. The paper focuses on Archimedian copulas, for which the dependence structure is fully determined by a one-dimensional projection that is invariant under marginal transformations. Diagnostic plots for copula fit based on this projection are adapted to deal with discrete variables. Covariates relating to within-match contributions such as numbers of passes and tackles are introduced to explain variability in shot outcomes. The results of this analysis would appear to support the notion that playing the 'beautiful game' is an effective strategy—more passes and crosses contribute to more effective play and more shots on the goal.     

绿色壁垒对我国纺织服装业的影响研究

为了避免绿色壁垒对我国纺织服装业造成更大的经济损失,保持行业的持续健康发展,本文分析了绿色壁垒对我国纺织服装业带来的积极影响和消极影响,进而提出应对绿色壁垒消极影响的措施。     

IDEF3方法在集装箱码头仿真中的应用

针对Witness仿真过程中经常出现的问题，提出了一种优化仿真设计的建模方法，井结合集装箱码头物流的实际情况进行了说明。建立了集装箱入港物流的模型框架，达到了码头仿真单元的可重构性，大大提高了仿真的速度，并有效地避免了仿真过程中一些难以发现的问题。     

按劳分配与收入公平分配

按劳分配与收入公平分配存在正相关,主要表现在按劳分配存在前提和分配主体转换的公平性、分配依据和利益结构及其主体地位的合理性五个方面.按劳分配的实践与收入公平分配存在负相关,主要表现在由于理解上的偏差、应用中的偏差、实施对象客观条件不同而导致收入分配中事实上的不公平.为了强化按劳分配与收入公平分配的正相关、弱化按劳分配的实践与收入公平分配的负相关,必须采取相应对策.     

由中国国歌的英语译法浅析汉英正反译法的相互应用

翻译学是一门综合社会科学,包括文学翻译,句法翻译,科技翻译,同声翻译和电脑翻译等学科,其采用的方法的手段又是多样的,诸如:直译、意译、扩译、省译、词类转换和正反译等等,但所遵循的原则是译者用一种语言表达原作者用另一种语言所表达的同一概念或思想。该文力图通过具体的实例浅析正反译法在翻译实践中的相互应用。     

税收公平伦理视角下的个人所得税制建构

税收公平原则富含社会伦理的思想。对个人所得税的征管，不仅要强调其经济功能，更要关注其社会公正和伦理维护的社会功能。我国的个人所得税制存在纳税人身份确定、纳税能力确定、征税范围确定三个方面的公平伦理扭曲。因此，新的个人所得税构想中应当强调全民纳税、量能负担原则，实行低累进税率和负所得税税率，同时要改进征管模式。     

审计报告改革对权益资本成本的影响研究

传统审计报告的模式化披露无法满足投资者价值信息获取需求,“审计期望差距”问题日益严重。基于2016年12月颁布的新审计报告准则,选取A+H股上市公司为研究对象,考察审计报告改革对上市公司权益资本成本的影响。结果表明,审计报告改革会显著降低权益资本成本。进一步发现,关键审计事项披露数目越多,权益资本成本越低;审计报告改革降低权益资本成本的效应在信息不对称程度高、内部控制水平低、媒体环境差以及代理冲突高的公司中更为明显。这不仅为审计报告改革的经济后果提供了证据,而且对于提高投资者决策效率以及维护资本市场秩序也具有一定的现实意义。