5/1/2015 — This paper investigates changes in firm spending following changes in shareholder taxes. We show that firms with less elastic demand for equity capital will expand operations less than other firms following shareholder tax cuts. Since financial constraint is a factor that diminishes a firms demand elasticity for capital, we predict that financially constrained firms expand less than other companies following shareholder tax reductions.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• investments
• tax

5/1/2015 — Impression management research suggests variability in the effectiveness of self-promotion: audiences grant self-promoters more status in some situations than others. We propose that self-promotion effectiveness depends on the audience’s cognitive resources.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• organizational behavior

5/1/2015 — Marketing academics and practitioners alike remain unconvinced about the chief marketing officer's (CMO's) performance implications. Whereas some studies propose that firms benefit financially from having a CMO in the C-suite, other studies conclude that the CMO has little or no effect on firm performance.

• KEYWORD(S):
• c-suite
• management
• marketing

4/15/2015 — The efficiency of price discovery in the REIT market is an issue of enduring interest. Unfortunately, existing studies focus on REIT index data, and the general equity efficiency literature that uses individual assets typically excludes this sector.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance

4/15/2015 — We are now in the age of Big, and, seemingly, ever Bigger Data. The current public discussion focuses on the avalanche of data, due to fact that nearly all written (and other) materials are now available in a digital format, which simplifies their accessibility, extraction, classification, and analysis. Even more so, the adoptions of online digital platforms create new and ever-larger data quantities every day. While created for other purposes the potential for scientific socio-economic research appears simultaneously extremely promising and extremely uncertain – very much like answers in search of good questions.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data privacy
• innovation

4/10/2015 — This paper conceptualises the array of social practices as a continuum of social innovation and empirically demonstrates variation not captured by legal designation. Using a survey from the US state of North Carolina, this paper examines how organisations across the continuum responded to the 2008 economic recession.

• KEYWORD(S):
• economic development policy
• impact investing
• innovation
• social entrepreneurship

4/10/2015 — This paper examines the cross-university variation in spin-off activity by faculty members from 124 US academic institutions, using a unique database including data on founders of both formal and informal spin-offs. Accordingly, the rate of spawning founders is positively affected by the quality of the institution and its departments, the R&D expenditure of the institution, and the strength of the local cluster.

4/8/2015 — A retailer cannot sell more than it has in stock; therefore, its sales observations are a censored representation of the underlying demand process. When a retailer forecasts demand based on past sales observations, it requires an estimation approach that accounts for this censoring. Several authors have analyzed inventory management with demand learning in environments with censored observations, but the authors assume that inventory levels are known and hence that stockouts are observed.

• KEYWORD(S):
• economics
• financial reporting
• investments
• operations
• supply chain

4/1/2015 — We introduce a novel approach to estimating latent oil risk factors and establish their significance in pricing nonoil securities. Our model, which features four factors with simple economic interpretations, is estimated using both derivative prices and oil-related equity returns.

• KEYWORD(S):
• equity markets
• finance
• oil
• risk management

4/1/2015 — I examine the intertemporal distribution of US productivity risk and show that the conditional mean of productivity growth is an important determinant of macro quantities and asset prices. After establishing this empirical link, I rationalize it in a production economy featuring long-run productivity risk, Epstein and Zin (1989) preferences, and investment frictions.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• global business
• investments

3/24/2015 — We present a novel source of disagreement grounded in decision theory: ambiguity aversion. We show that ambiguity aversion generates endogenous disagreement between a firm's insider and outside shareholders, creating a new rationale for corporate governance systems.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• management

3/20/2015 — We analyze two pricing mechanisms for information goods. These mechanisms are selling, where up-front payment allows unrestricted use, and pay-per-use, where payments are tailored to use. We analytically model a market where consumers differ in use frequency and where use on a pay-per-use basis invokes a psychological cost associated with the well known “ticking meter” effect. We demonstrate that pay-per-use yields higher profits in a monopoly provided the associated psychological cost is low.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• strategy and entrepreneurship

3/9/2015 — We examine the effects of mixed sampling frequencies and temporal aggregation on the size of commonly used tests for cointegration, and we find that these effects may be severe.

• KEYWORD(S):
• data project
• finance

3/7/2015 — In this article, we lay out the challenges and research opportunities associated with business-to-business (B2B) buying. These challenges and opportunities reflect four aspects of B2B buying that the Institute for the Study of Business Markets (ISBM: www.isbm.org) has identified through a Delphi-like process: (1) the changing landscape of B2B buying, (2) the increasing sophistication of sellers, (3) the impact of technological changes, and (4) the increasing importance and growth of emerging markets. For each of these four areas, we identify the relevant background, key issues, and pertinent research agendas.

• KEYWORD(S):
• global business
• marketing

3/4/2015 — The authors analyzed the planning problem for HIV screening, testing and care. This problem consists of determining the optimal fraction of patients to be screened in every period as well as the optimum staffing level at each part of the health care system to maximize the total health benefits to the patients measured by Quality-Adjusted Life-Years (QALYs) gained.

• KEYWORD(S):
• healthcare
• operations
• risk management
• technology

3/2/2015 — By 2012, all European Union countries began requiring the disclosure of large short positions. This regime change reduced short interest, bid-ask spreads, and the informativeness of prices. After specific disclosures, short-run abnormal returns are insignificantly negative, but 90-day cumulative abnormal returns are –5.23%.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• financial reporting
• global business
• investments

3/1/2015 — While prior research highlights the importance of codifying alliance experience to achieve alliance success, it is unclear whether codification is equally useful in the different phases of an alliance. Based on a sample of 192 technology firms that report on over 3,400 strategic alliances, we find that in the partner selection and termination phases, reliance on codified knowledge is useful. However, in the partner management phase, reliance on codified knowledge is less beneficial and can be even negatively related to performance. Our findings have implications for the tension between flexibility and efficiency and the relationship between structure and performance.

• KEYWORD(S):
• knowledge management
• organizational behavior
• strategy and entrepreneurship

3/1/2015 — I have yet to decline an opportunity to ride some of my favorite hobby horses in managerial accounting research, so the invitation by Ranjani Krishnan to participate in the Journal of Management Accounting Research's 25th Anniversary Panel at the 2014 Management Accounting Section Midyear Meeting in Orlando was very welcome. The following summarizes my thoughts expressed during the panel. I hope to stir the pot and perhaps get management accounting researchers to think somewhat differently after reading this piece about where we are as a field and where we need to be going to be successful in the next 25 years.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• investments

3/1/2015 — Using data from two experience-sampling studies, this paper investigates the dynamic relationships between discretionary behaviors at work—voluntary tasks that employees perform—and internal somatic complaints, focusing specifically on a person’s pain fluctuations.

• KEYWORD(S):
• organizational behavior

3/1/2015 — Many managers today are spending more and more time working cross-functionally. For example, a recent Corporate Executive Board survey of over 20,000 employees found that 60-70% reported working in groups that involve individuals from other internal functional areas or other external stakeholders. Similarly, a Best Companies for Leadership survey, jointly sponsored by Businessweek.com and the Hay Group, found that more than 96% of managers in the top 20 performing global companies agreed with the statement, "My organization operates in a highly matrixed structure," where one of the main goals behind matrix structures is to pull together representatives from different functional groups to make decisions.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• organizational behavior

3/1/2015 — People often experience anxiety in the workplace. Across 6 studies, we show that anxiety, both induced and measured, can lead to self-interested unethical behavior.

• KEYWORD(S):
• ethics
• organizational behavior

2/26/2015 — Professional psychologists are increasingly encouraged to document and evaluate the quality of the treatment they provide. However, there is a significant gap in knowledge about the extent to which extant definitions of treatment quality converge with patient perceptions. The primary goal of this study was to examine how adolescent substance users (ASU) and their caregivers perceive treatment quality.

• KEYWORD(S):
• healthcare
• marketing
• technology

2/20/2015 — Given uncertain popularity of new products by location, fast fashion retailer Zara faces a trade-off. Large initial shipments to stores reduce lost sales in the critical first days of the product life cycle, but maintaining stock at the warehouse allows restocking flexibility once initial sales are observed.

• KEYWORD(S):
• global business
• innovation
• marketing
• operations
• supply chain

2/19/2015 — We consider a firm that can use one of several costly learning modes to dynamically reduce uncertainty about the unknown value of a project. Each learning mode incurs cost at a particular rate and provides information of a particular quality. In addition to dynamic decisions about its learning mode, the firm must decide when to stop learning and either invest or abandon the project.

• KEYWORD(S):
• innovation
• investments
• operations
• technology

2/1/2015 — We look into how local consumers receive foreign cultures embedded in imported movies against customized local cultures in domestic movies in the Korean movie market. We theorize that imported movies (mostly, American movies), which often have bigger budgets and superior moviemaking techniques, suffer from cultural discount in appealing to local (Korean) viewers.

• KEYWORD(S):
• global business
• marketing
• strategy and entrepreneurship

2/1/2015 — We examine the global equity supply chains of U.S. multinationals to explore how tax and nontax country characteristics affect whether firms use foreign holding companies and where they locate them. We find that U.S. multinationals supply equity from headquarters to their foreign operating companies through foreign holding companies located in countries that lightly tax equity distributions.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• global business
• supply chain
• tax

2/1/2015 — We examine the social perception of emotional intelligence (EI) through the use of observer ratings. Individuals frequently judge others’ emotional abilities in real-world settings, yet we know little about the properties of such ratings.

• KEYWORD(S):
• organizational behavior

2/1/2015 — In this study, we use hourly data on store traffic, sales, and labor from 41 stores of a large retail chain to identify the extent of understaffing in retail stores and quantify its impact on sales and profitability. Using an empirical model motivated from queueing theory, we calculate the benchmark staffing level for each store, and establish the presence of systematic understaffing during peak hours.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• operations

1/27/2015 — In this discussion, I use Holzhacker, Krishnan, and Mahlendorf (this issue), hereafter HKM, as a point of departure from which to discuss the current state of the two research areas to which they contribute. I will present some big-picture thoughts on research opportunities in their source literatures — the literature on financial management in health care and the literature on cost stickiness — and speculate as to where these literatures might go in the future.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting
• economic development
• healthcare
• private equity
• risk management

1/19/2015 — We empirically investigate one form of illegal investor‐level tax evasion and its effect on foreign portfolio investment. In particular, we examine a form of round‐tripping tax evasion in which U.S. individuals hide funds in entities located in offshore tax havens and then invest those funds in U.S. securities markets. Employing Becker's () economic theory of crime, we identify the tax evasion component by examining how foreign portfolio investment varies with changes in the incentives to evade and the risks of detection. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical evidence of investor‐level tax evasion affecting cross‐border equity and debt investment.

• KEYWORD(S):
• international tax

1/19/2015 — We analyze why firms use non-intermediated short-term debt by studying the commercial paper (CP) market. Using a comprehensive database of CP issuers and issuance activity, we show that firms use CP to provide start-up financing for capital investment.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• investments
• risk management

1/17/2015 — We document differences in human capital deployment between diversified and focused firms. We find that diversified firms have higher labor productivity and that they redeploy labor to industries with better prospects in response to changing opportunities. The opportunities and incentives provided in internal labor markets in turn affect the development of workers' human capital. We find that workers more frequently transition to other industries in which their diversified firms operate and with smaller wage losses than workers in the open market, even when they leave their original firms. Overall, internal labor markets provide a bright side to corporate diversification.

• KEYWORD(S):
• economic development
• finance
• organizational behavior

1/1/2015 — We examine the role of general counsel (GC) in firms' financial reporting quality. GCs have a broad oversight role within the firm, including keeping the firm in compliance with laws and regulations and dealing with potential violations with respect to financial reporting. Several high-profile U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigations have resulted in lawsuits or indictments against GCs for perpetrating financial fraud and caused many to ask: where were the gatekeepers?

1/1/2015 — This study examines the economic impact of continuing care retirement communities on North Carolina and the potential they have for creating jobs and expanding the state's tax base. The report suggests that with North Carolina’s older adult population set to explode by nearly 70% in the next twenty years (an additional one million seniors), the impact of CCRCs on our state’s economic health will be staggering.

• KEYWORD(S):
• aging
• inequality
• north carolina

1/1/2015 — The North Carolina Community College System is faced with a major dilemma: how to reduce the time to degree and increase the community colleges’ success or graduation rates, which system-wide now stands at 30% in four years. This research was designed to gain qualitative insights from a sample of recent graduates, that is, students who managed to graduate in four or fewer years, on critical success factors. From the standpoint of strategy development, we assert that building on success may be more productive than focusing on deficits in improving community college completion rates.

• KEYWORD(S):
• higher education
• north carolina

1/1/2015 — Yield curve fluctuations across different currencies are highly correlated. This paper investigates this phenomenon by exploring the channels through which macroeconomic shocks are transmitted across borders. Macroeconomic shocks affect current and expected future short-term rates as central banks react to changing economic environments. Investors could also respond to these shocks by altering their required compensation for risk. Macroeconomic shocks thus influence bond yields both through a policy channel and through a risk compensation channel.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• risk management

1/1/2015 — Many recent corporate scandals have been described as resulting from a slippery slope in which a series of small infractions gradually increased over time (e.g., McLean & Elkind, 2003). However, behavioral ethics research has rarely considered how unethical behavior unfolds over time.

• KEYWORD(S):
• ethics
• organizational behavior

1/1/2015 — Retail store associates are frontline employees of retail organizations and are responsible for delivering superior in-store experience to its customers. Store associates provide customer service through direct interaction with customers as well as through indirect means such as maintaining a clean store and ensuring that the shelves are fully stocked.

• KEYWORD(S):
• management
• operations

12/31/2014 — Hart (2011) argues that the Aumann and Serrano (2008) and Foster and Hart (2009) measures of riskiness have an objective and universal appeal with respect to a subset of expected utility preferences, UH. We show that mean-riskiness decision-making criteria using either measure violate expected utility and are generally inconsistent with optimal portfolio choices made by investors with preferences in UH.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• investments
• risk management

12/18/2014 — The spatial diffusion and adoption of rDNA methods, Regional Studies. The 1980 patent granted to Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer for their development of rDNA technology played a critical role in the establishment of the modern biotechnology industry. From the birth of this general-purpose technology in the San Francisco Bay area, rDNA-related knowledge diffused across sectors and regions of the US economy.

• KEYWORD(S):
• innovation

12/11/2014 — We study whether asset-class risk dynamics can help explain the predominantly negative stock-bond return relation and movements in the term-structure's slope over 1997-2011.

• KEYWORD(S):
• equity markets
• finance
• risk management

12/5/2014 — In "Quitters Never Win: The (Adverse) Incentive Effects of Competing with Superstars," Brown (2011) argues that professional golfers perform relatively poorly in tournaments in which Tiger Woods also competes. We show that Brown's conclusions are based on a problematic empirical design, which if adjusted yields no evidence of a superstar effect.

• KEYWORD(S):
• organizational behavior

12/4/2014 — The multigenerational survival rate for family-owned businesses is not good. Lack of a shared vision for the family enterprise and weak next-generation leadership are often cited as two of the leading reasons for the failure of family firms to successfully transition from one generation of family ownership to the next. The climate of the business-owning family has also been suggested as important to the performance of the family enterprise. Despite these commonly held tenets, there is a lack of rigorous quantitative research that explores the relationships among these three factors.

• KEYWORD(S):
• family business

12/1/2014 — We investigate whether firms and their top executives bear reputational costs from engaging in aggressive tax avoidance activities. Prior literature has posited that reputational costs partially explain why so many firms apparently forgo the benefits of tax avoidance, the so-called “under-sheltering puzzle.” We employ a database of 118 firms that were subject to public scrutiny for having engaged in tax shelters, representing the largest sample of publicly identified corporate tax shelters analyzed to date.

• KEYWORD(S):
• federal tax

12/1/2014 — In closed-end funds, a managed distribution policy (MDP) is a dividend commitment potentially requiring the liquidation of assets. We argue that MDPs lower managerial claims on fund assets and, when the fund is at a discount, increase shareholder value. This transfer of wealth can be rationalized by managers wishing to deter a challenge from activist shareholders through a costly proxy vote. We find strong empirical evidence that managers respond to the presence of activists using MDPs, that MDPs constitute an effective wealth transfer to shareholders, and that activists are less likely to challenge management when an MDP is in place.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance

12/1/2014 — In this article, we analyze how retailers change their inventory investment behavior in response to macroeconomic shocks. We examine if service level, as measured by the ratio of stockout to inventory holding costs, can explain the differences in observed behavior across retailers. We use data on macroeconomic indicators and quarterly filings of US public retailers from 1985 to 2009 to estimate a dynamic model of short- and long-term impact of macroeconomic shocks on inventory investment.

• KEYWORD(S):
• economics
• investments
• operations

11/14/2014 — We study the role of information in asset pricing models with long-run cash flow risk. When investors can distinguish short- from long-run consumption risks (full information), the model generates a sizable equity risk premium only if the equity term structure slopes up, contrary to the data.

• KEYWORD(S):
• equity markets
• finance
• investments

11/5/2014 — This study analyzes optimal replenishment policies that minimize expected discounted cost of multi-product stochastic inventory systems. The distinguishing feature of the multi-product inventory system that we analyze is the existence of correlated demand and joint-replenishment costs across multiple products.

• KEYWORD(S):
• operations
• supply chain

11/1/2014 — I provide big picture comments on the review of the banking literature in accounting by Beatty and Liao (2014). Beatty and Liao (2014) does a service to the accounting field by providing an intelligent, well organized and accessible point of entry to banking research in accounting.

• KEYWORD(S):
• accounting