Salma Ibrahim, Li Xu and Genese Rogers
Prior research suggests that firms manipulate earnings through accruals to achieve certain reporting objectives. Recently, especially following the Sarbanes‐Oxley (SarbOx) Act…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior research suggests that firms manipulate earnings through accruals to achieve certain reporting objectives. Recently, especially following the Sarbanes‐Oxley (SarbOx) Act, researchers have turned their attention to real account manipulation as an alternative. However, there is no evidence on whether the likelihood of being detected by outsiders is different for firms using these alternative manipulation methods. The purpose of this paper is to examine this research question in the context of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs).
Design/methodology/approach
First, the authors compare SEOs to a matched sample of non‐SEOs to document income‐increasing manipulation. Next, they identify SEOs that prompt lawsuits and compare sued and non‐sued firms to determine whether using a particular method of manipulation is more likely to be detected and associated with litigation.
Findings
The authors find evidence of income‐increasing accrual and real manipulation for SEOs in the year prior to the offering in the pre‐SarbOx period, and find some evidence of a shift to real account manipulation post‐SarbOx. The authors examine the subsequent litigation pattern of these SEOs, and find that firms that are subsequently sued have a higher prevalence of income‐increasing discretionary accruals when the lawsuit allegations involve accounting issues. Following SarbOx, investors are paying less attention to accrual manipulation through accounts receivable and there is more scrutiny of real account manipulation.
Originality/value
The implication in this paper is that firms that engage in income‐increasing earnings management are more likely to be sued when they engage in accrual manipulation while other forms of manipulation may be less understood. This finding is important to investors and regulators.
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Purpose – This chapter examines the process of radicalization, deradicalization, and support for intelligence agencies in a few well-known cases of terrorists who turned into…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter examines the process of radicalization, deradicalization, and support for intelligence agencies in a few well-known cases of terrorists who turned into informants.
Methodology/Approach – Five cases studies are utilized to demonstrate the process of engagement in, disengagement from, and revolt against terrorist groups. Existing literature on radicalization and deradicalization is set against the context of these case studies.
Findings – By drawing upon the experiences of terrorists who turned into informants, it is possible to prove theories on radicalization and deradicalization. In particular, the process of cognitive radicalization presumes that extremist beliefs can also be rejected (deradicalization), while the process of behavioral radicalization presumes that terrorists can distance themselves from extremist behaviors (disengagement).
Originality/Value – Scholarship has traditionally focused on “underdogs” of all kinds, with a less keen interest in elites or the actors operating on their behalf. The work of informants has often remained in a dimly lit corner of academic research. This chapter helps illuminate the path undertaken by terrorists who become informants for Western security apparatus.
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A Catastrophe Theory Model modified for the explanation of the evolution/revolution of behavior in the securities market can be classified in the realm of behavioral finance. An…
Abstract
A Catastrophe Theory Model modified for the explanation of the evolution/revolution of behavior in the securities market can be classified in the realm of behavioral finance. An early model of the Cusp Catastrophe Model modified to explain speculative crashes appeared in Zeeman (1976, 1977). Later, Pruden expanded upon Zeeman’s use of the Cusp Model version of Catastrophe Theory to allow for “buying stampedes” as well as “selling panics”. Pruden also established connections between the Cusp Catastrophe Model and technical market analysis. Whereas the Catastrophe Theory Model, like other models from the behavioral sciences, provides a positive scientific theory as to the “why” of behavior in the stock market, technical market analysis furnishes a nominal theory of rules and principles about “how” a trader or investor may profit from the behavior observed in the stock market. Hence, the presupposition is that behavioral science models that explain the stock market behavior provide solid scientific foundations upon which to base the principles and practices of technical market analysis.
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Adopting an intra-organizational viewpoint is essential to grasp legal intermediation. To deepen our understanding of such phenomena, this chapter proposes a qualitative and…
Abstract
Adopting an intra-organizational viewpoint is essential to grasp legal intermediation. To deepen our understanding of such phenomena, this chapter proposes a qualitative and “multi-level” approach drawing on insights from the neo-institutional literature, policy ethnography analysis and the research on legal intermediaries. Such a perspective is particularly suited to capture the complexity and the depth of institutional change. Using the 12-hour work legal mechanism of derogation in the context of French public hospitals as an example, this chapter highlights how both macro-level actors (actors of a “reform network”), and micro-level ones (hospital directors) contribute to the shaping and framing of legality in French public hospitals. Results show that variation in how those actors use law depends on the local configuration. Second, results demonstrate that the legal games they play are not merely based on symbolic and superficial compliance with the law, but also on outright manipulations and conscious rule-breaking.
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This attempt to prick Colossus demands an apology and an explanation. The main suggestion outlined below has long revolved in my mind, but I would certainly never have had the…
Abstract
This attempt to prick Colossus demands an apology and an explanation. The main suggestion outlined below has long revolved in my mind, but I would certainly never have had the temerity to set it down in black and white but for the encouragement received in the Library of Congress itself. During a recent visit to Washington I was invited by the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Luther Evans, and by several members of his learned staff, to express my views on the Library and its catalogue. Intellectual hospitality of this order invites and deserves a frank response. Here it is. It is hardly necessary to say that I alone am responsible for what follows, though I gratefully acknowledge both the encouragement and the information freely given me, especially by Mr. Herman Henkle, Director of the Processing Department of the Library of Congress.
Myriam Ertz, Émilie Boily, Shouheng Sun and Emine Sarigöllü
The purpose of this study is to examine the process underlying how consumers shift roles from users to suppliers of goods or services in the collaborative economy (CE). It…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the process underlying how consumers shift roles from users to suppliers of goods or services in the collaborative economy (CE). It examines quantatively the impact of a series of explanatory variables underlying that switchover process.
Design/methodology/approach
This study identifies and tests the key factors that motivate the user-provider transition by introducing the spillover effect from the proenvironmental literature into collaborative practices and using four experimental designs. Considering behavioral characteristics, context, intrinsic variables and socialization, this study provides an in-depth understanding of the process of transition from user to supplier in the CE.
Findings
The results suggest the interactive nature of the spillover as peer influence boosts changes in individual motivations, preferences and behaviors. Furthermore, promoting solidarity between members of the CE platform facilitates the transition of participants from users to providers. In addition, the users’ perception of socialization, satisfaction and sense of indebtedness may also play a significant role in the transition.
Research limitations/implications
The study highlights the process underlying the switchover from user to provider at the prosumer level. More specifically, this study identifies key variables influencing the intention to switchover in the CE by drawing on the spillover effect from pro-environmental behavior and considering the spillover as an interactive process.
Practical implications
Managers who wish to develop collaborative systems must attract a critical mass of providers to ensure the viability of their systems. Instead of recruiting new providers, managers may convert existing users into providers. This study identifies the key variables to modulate to this end.
Originality/value
The findings offer important managerial implications and shed new light on the CE literature.
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– The paper aims to study the consequences of the development of Islamic marketing on the social construction of Muslim religious identities.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to study the consequences of the development of Islamic marketing on the social construction of Muslim religious identities.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses Max Weber's ideal-type methodology to analyze actors and strategies in Islamic marketing, as represented by their self-presentation on French-, English- and Arabic-language web sites.
Findings
First, the paper argues that by conflating values and preferences, rational choice theory fails to recognize an essential function of values, which govern the relationship between the personal and the social. Second, it describes the emergence of brand markets within traditional Muslim commodity economies. Third, it uses these distinctions, between the personal and the social and between commodity and brand economies, to construct four ideal types of Muslim economic actors: “collectivists”, “differentialists”, “integrationists”, and “entrepreneurs”.
Research limitations/implications
The choice of web sites to survey Muslim economic and religious actors favors producers over consumers, religious specialists over laypeople. Future research should include protocols designed to test ways in which Muslims negotiate the conflicting demands of religion, society and economics in their daily lives.
Originality/value
In contradistinction to studies that emphasize the influence of Muslim consumer demand on the development of goods and services, this paper shows that economic conditions, notably globalization and market segmentation, affect the way Muslims construct their religious identities.
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Delfina Gomes, Garry D. Carnegie and Lúcia Lima Rodrigues
The purpose of this paper is to look at the adoption of double entry bookkeeping at the Royal Treasury, Portugal, on its establishment in 1761 and the factors contributing to this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to look at the adoption of double entry bookkeeping at the Royal Treasury, Portugal, on its establishment in 1761 and the factors contributing to this development. The Royal Treasury was the first central government organization in Portugal to adopt double entry bookkeeping and was a crucial first step in the institutionalisation of the technique in Portuguese public administration.
Design/methodology/approach
Set firmly in the archive, this paper adopts new institutional sociology (NIS) to inform the findings of the local, time‐specific accounting policy and practice at the Portuguese Royal Treasury.
Findings
Embedded within the broader European context, this study identifies the key pressures exerted upon the Royal Treasury on its formation in 1761, which resulted in major accounting change within Portuguese central government from that date. The study provides further evidence of the importance of the state in the institutionalization of accounting practices by means of coercive pressures and highlights for Portugal the importance of individual actors who, as powerful change agents, made key decisions that influenced accounting change.
Originality/value
This study examines a major instance of accounting change in European central government and broadens the application of NIS in accounting history research to a different country – Portugal – and to a different time – the eighteenth century. It also serves to illuminate the difficulties of collecting pertinent evidence pertaining to this long‐dated time period in identifying certain forms of institutional pressures.