Louis J. Stewart and Carol A. Cox
We reviewed the fiscal 2003 financial statement footnote disclosures of the fifty states and the 100 largest cities in the United States (US) to ascertain the nature and extent of…
Abstract
We reviewed the fiscal 2003 financial statement footnote disclosures of the fifty states and the 100 largest cities in the United States (US) to ascertain the nature and extent of derivative activities among US state and municipal governments. There were 23 state governments and 23 municipal governments that have engaged in such transactions with an aggregate notional value approaching $32 billion. These governments enter into these transactions primarily to hedge the interest rate and cash flow risks associated with their long term variable rate demand obligations and auction rate debt. Our findings also indicate that the widespread implementation of GASB TB 2003 - 1 has improved the quality of state and municipal disclosures with respect to their derivative activities. In June 2008, the GASB issued its Statement 53 which mandates the accounting measurement of these derivative financial instruments at their fair value on the statement of net assets and promises to further improve their footnote disclosure.
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Louis J. Stewart and Pamela C. Smith
This paper examines the 2008 collapse of the US tax‐exempt auction rate securities (ARS) market, from the perspective of not‐for‐profit auction rate debt issuers.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the 2008 collapse of the US tax‐exempt auction rate securities (ARS) market, from the perspective of not‐for‐profit auction rate debt issuers.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a multiple case study methodology to examine the financial and operating impact of ARS auction failures on three US nonprofit hospitals and health systems. The analysis is based solely on information drawn from publicly‐available documents.
Findings
The three case study subjects issued more than $ 411 million in ARS. These securities were issued with bond insurance and fixed payer interest rate derivatives. The 2008 global financial crisis resulted in millions of dollars in drastically increased interest costs, costly debt refunding, and derivative‐related collateral postings. It was also found that the ability of an individual ARS issuer to respond effectively to these capital market‐related shocks is related to three key factors – profitability, liquidity and perceived credit quality.
Research limitations/implications
The reliance on a case study methodology may limit the authors' ability to generalize the findings to the hundreds of other US non‐profit ARS issuers.
Practical implications
Nonprofit financial executives must learn to adequately assess their organization's risk exposures if innovative long‐term capital financing instruments are to be used in the future. These potential costs, as well as any ineffectively hedged interest cost exposure, must be considered and weighed against any potential interest cost saving associated with any future debt financing arrangements.
Originality/value
The paper measures the financial and operating impact of the highly publicized 2008 ARS market collapse on non‐profit ARS issuers.
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Barrie O. Pettman and Richard Dobbins
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
Abstract
This issue is a selected bibliography covering the subject of leadership.
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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Gerard P. Hodgkinson, Robert P. Wright and Jamie Anderson
Developments in the social neurosciences over the past two decades have rendered problematic the main knowledge elicitation techniques currently in use by strategy researchers, as…
Abstract
Developments in the social neurosciences over the past two decades have rendered problematic the main knowledge elicitation techniques currently in use by strategy researchers, as a basis for revealing actors’ mental representations of strategic knowledge. Extant elicitation techniques were advanced during an era when cognitive scientists and organizational researchers alike were preoccupied with the basic information of processing limitations of decision makers and means of addressing them, predicated on an outmoded conception of strategists as affect-free, cognitive misers. The need to adapt these techniques to enable the investigation of the emotional content and structure of actors’ mental representations is now a pressing priority for the advancement of theory, research, and practice pertaining to several interrelated areas of strategic management, from dynamic capabilities development, to upper echelons theory, to strategic consensus formation. Accordingly, in this chapter, we report the findings of two studies that investigated the feasibility of adapting the repertory grid, a robust method, widely known and well used in strategic management, for this purpose. Study 1 elicited a series of commonly mentioned strategic issues (the elements) from a sample of senior managers similar in composition to the sample recruited to the second study. Study 2 participants evaluated the elements elicited in Study 1 in relation to a series of researcher-supplied bipolar attributes (the constructs), based on the well-known affective circumplex model of human emotions. In line with expectations, a series of vector-based multivariate analyses revealed a number of interesting similarities and variations among participants in terms of the basic structure and emotional salience of the issues under consideration.
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I HAVE sometimes been asked whether I am conscious, as the present editor of THE LIBRARY WORLD, of the spirit and influence of its founder, James Duff Brown, and of his editorial…
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I HAVE sometimes been asked whether I am conscious, as the present editor of THE LIBRARY WORLD, of the spirit and influence of its founder, James Duff Brown, and of his editorial successors, who included J. D. Stewart and W. C. Berwick Sayers. The answer is that of course I am—how could it be otherwise?
PHILIP B. SCHARY and BORIS W. BECKER
This monograph progresses from a consideration of definitional issues to the development of a conceptual model for marketing‐logistics interaction and finally to a discussion of…
Abstract
This monograph progresses from a consideration of definitional issues to the development of a conceptual model for marketing‐logistics interaction and finally to a discussion of the issues of implementation of the model within the context of marketing strategy. Thus, following an introduction, Part II begins with definition of the field and examines the position of physical distribution in relation to marketing. Part III discusses the relationship of physical distribution and macro‐marketing, and is thus concerned about the social, aggregative goals of logistics systems, including the costs of distribution. Part IV continues this argument, examining specifically the influence of physical distribution on channel structure. Part V then focuses on the assumptions underlying the customer service function, asking how physical distribution can influence final demand in the market place. Part VI presents a conceptual model of marketing‐logistics demand stimulation. The operational issues concerned with its implementation are shown in Part VII; and a summary of the relevant points is presented in Part VIII. The concern has been not with presenting either new computational models nor empirical data but with presenting a new perspective on the marketing‐logistics interface. There is a need to reduce the barriers between these fields and to present more useful ways for co‐operation.
Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way…
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Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.