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Charting the earnings numbers reported by Korean firms produces a bell curve, but for a sharp discontinuity in the area surrounding zero. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if and how a large segment of Korean managers might manage accounting numbers to produce the observed result.

This study adopts an empirical research method using Korean listed firms as a sample. The primary focus of investigation is on major income statement variables that might produce the observed results in earnings from operations and net income.

Managers of Korean firms opportunistically use almost all income statement variables to influence earnings numbers. They manage revenues and selling, general & administrative expenses to report small positive earnings from operations, but manage non-operating gains (losses) to report small positive net income.

This paper does not answer several questions related to loss avoidance. First, the paper did not examine which actions, such as discretionary accruals, opportunistic business decisions, or bogus transactions, were employed to affect line items on the income statement. Second, the paper did not investigate what specific incentives trigger Korean managers to report small positive earnings. Korean firms have traditionally raised capital by borrowing funds from creditors and governmental agencies. Thus, they may be concerned that reporting losses would reduce their borrowing capacity. Finally, corporate governance, such as CEO tenure and option grants may influence the extent of earnings management to avoid losses, but most corporate governance data for Korean companies must be manually collected. Accordingly, these subjects are left for future studies as well.

This study contributes to accounting literature by reporting how managers of Korean firms artificially coordinate major income statement variables and report small positive earnings figures, noting the differences between earnings management investigating methodology and ones used in previous studies.

This study aims to determine the effect of board gender diversity on cyber security disclosure (CSD) in the banking sector of Indonesia as a developing country that adheres to a two-tier system.

This study uses a panel data of 47 banks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2014 to 2021. The board gender diversity is measured by three proxies, the proportion of women on the board, BLAU Index value and the critical mass of women. The authors used generalized method of moments estimation to eliminate the simultaneous equation bias.

The results show that the women board of commissioners increases CSD, and the women of board of directors/top management team were significantly negative for CSD.

First, this research was only conducted in the banking sector. The results cannot be generalized to non-financial companies. Second, there is no measurement of the quality of the board from the level of education, experience, expertise and other characteristics of diversity such as age, nationality and religion.

The study has revealed the need for the government’s role in providing oversight of the presence of women on the board so that banks fully comply with Indonesia Financial Services Authority regulations. Banks should also actively launch policies regarding the presence of women on the board to give a positive effect to stakeholders that women play an important role in decision making. Banks must also adjust the composition of female commissioners with a threshold of two people to maximize their function as supervisors.

This is the first research conducted on the banking sector in Indonesia as a developing country that adheres to a two-tier system. The results of this study provide evidence that patriarchal culture is still dominant in Indonesia.

A three-dimensional (3D) printed custom-fit respirator mask has been proposed as a promising solution to alleviate mask-related injuries and supply shortages during COVID-19. However, creating a custom-fit computer-aided design (CAD) model for each mask is currently a manual process and thereby not scalable for a pandemic crisis. This paper aims to develop a novel design process to reduce overall design cost and time, thus enabling the mass customisation of 3D printed respirator masks.

Four data acquisition methods were used to collect 3D facial data from five volunteers. Geometric accuracy, equipment cost and acquisition time of each method were evaluated to identify the most suitable acquisition method for a pandemic crisis. Subsequently, a novel three-step design process was developed and scripted to generate respirator mask CAD models for each volunteer. Computational time was evaluated and geometric accuracy of the masks was evaluated via one-sided Hausdorff distance.

Respirator masks were successfully generated from all meshes, taking <2 min/mask for meshes of 50,000∼100,000 vertices and <4 min for meshes of ∼500,000 vertices. The average geometric accuracy of the mask ranged from 0.3 mm to 1.35 mm, depending on the acquisition method. The average geometric accuracy of mesh obtained from different acquisition methods ranged from 0.56 mm to 1.35 mm. A smartphone with a depth sensor was found to be the most appropriate acquisition method.

A novel and scalable mass customisation design process was presented, which can automatically generate CAD models of custom-fit respirator masks in a few minutes from a raw 3D facial mesh. Four acquisition methods, including the use of a statistical shape model, a smartphone with a depth sensor, a light stage and a structured light scanner were compared; one method was recommended for use in a pandemic crisis considering equipment cost, acquisition time and geometric accuracy.

The purpose of this study is to identify the optimal meetings, incentive travel, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) capacity for Las Vegas and analyze the over‐ and under‐capacity situation in Las Vegas from 2010 through 2014. The study provides recommendations for Las Vegas's future MICE development based on the capacity analysis.

A single‐period inventory model, which involves cost of over‐capacity, cost of under‐capacity, and forecasted future MICE demand, was used to identify the optimal capacity in terms of MICE square foot days for each year from 2010 through 2014. The model, which identified optimal capacity, was compared to the planned available capacity for each year to determine the magnitude of over‐ or under‐capacity.

The cost of over‐capacity was found much greater than the cost of under‐capacity. The model that identified optimal capacity indicates that Las Vegas will experience severe over‐capacity from 2010 to 2014.

The findings of this study should help researchers and practitioners evaluate the current status of the Las Vegas MICE industry in terms of capacity efficiency. The results suggest that the MICE development in Las Vegas is heading for over‐capacity and the industry must downscale its development plan in the near future to avoid severe over‐capacity.

For the first time in MICE research, this study develops an inventory model for determining the optimal MICE capacity. The model enables researchers and practitioners to identify and quantify over‐ and under‐capacity in the MICE industry in a scientific way.

Popular literature has theorized that police officers consume more alcohol than the general population. However, only a minuscule amount of research has been conducted on this phenomenon. The perceived consumption of police in the USA has been related to stress or social camaraderie issues, a dichotomous debate which has continued for years. This study seeks to enhance the debate by addressing the reported reasoning that police officers' use of alcohol is related to location, type of department, and size of population in which the officer operates.

A total of 1,328 full‐time Mississippi Municipal, Sheriff, and State police officers were asked to complete a 27‐item self‐reported questionnaire containing the World Health Organization's AUDIT instrument to determine alcohol use and risk.

Most of the officers surveyed reported drinking levels of alcohol equivalent to those reported in the general population. Moreover, 70 percent of the officers either abstained from alcohol or drank less than once a month. This study found no difference in the motivation to consume alcohol as it related to location, type of department or population size. However, the study did find that a true dichotomy over the stress and social debate does not actually exist. The researchers found a third factor that police reported for consuming alcohol.

Given the opportunity the researchers had, surveying after Hurricane Katrina, their finding no difference in the homogeneity in the state reassured the researchers that environmental stressors were not associated with the alcohol consumption of officers.

This chapter explores that landscape between the imagination and practice of ethnographic research as well as a concomitant transition in a sociologist's felt identity. Specifically, it describes the larger effect of building a persona for fieldwork on the self of the ethnographer. The work begins with an examination of the motives behind a proposed study of a deviant counterculture and the efforts that went into crafting a presentation of self appropriate for the milieu. It offers a detailed analysis of the social foundations of the outlaw motorcycle culture and a phase model of their socialization process.

Through a survey of 200 employees working in five of the thirty establishments analysed in previous research about the microeconomic effects of reducing the working time (Cahier 25), the consequences on employees of such a reduction can be assessed; and relevant attitudes and aspirations better known.

This chapter aims to evaluate the relationship between the representation of women on corporate boards of directors and its impact on firm financial performance.

This study utilized both a systematic review and a meta-analysis, using a sample of 40 published studies, which gleaned financial indicator and observation data from 28 different countries.

As indicated in previous studies, while positive, there was no significant correlation found between the number of women serving on the boards of directors and firm financial performance.

The heterogeneity between the various studies analyzed may present difficulties in making general conclusions. The chapter could also be subject to publication bias, as the selection criteria included may indicate a need for further peer review. Future meta-analyses should include data associated with other financial indicators.

This study shows how composition ratios of men/women serving on corporate boards should be addressed in terms of proving for a greater diversity of leadership perspectives.

Previous systematic reviews and meta-analyses have analyzed country environments as moderators for the relationship between the representation of women on corporate boards and firm financial performance. The present study evaluates possible differences between the impact of the number of women serving on the board of directors on a variety of financial indicators (ROA, ROE, and Tobin’s Q).

The strategic management literature emphasizes the concept of business intelligence (BI) as an essential competitive tool. Yet the sustainability of the firms’ competitive advantage provided by BI capability is not well researched. To fill this gap, this study attempts to develop a model for successful BI deployment and empirically examines the association between BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage. Taking the telecommunications industry in Malaysia as a case example, the research particularly focuses on the influencing perceptions held by telecommunications decision makers and executives on factors that impact successful BI deployment. The research further investigates the relationship between successful BI deployment and sustainable competitive advantage of the telecommunications organizations. Another important aim of this study is to determine the effect of moderating factors such as organization culture, business strategy, and use of BI tools on BI deployment and the sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage.

This research uses combination of resource-based theory and diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory to examine BI success and its relationship with firm’s sustainability. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and a two-phase sequential mixed method consisting of qualitative and quantitative approaches are employed. A tentative research model is developed first based on extensive literature review. The chapter presents a qualitative field study to fine tune the initial research model. Findings from the qualitative method are also used to develop measures and instruments for the next phase of quantitative method. The study includes a survey study with sample of business analysts and decision makers in telecommunications firms and is analyzed by partial least square-based structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that some internal resources of the organizations such as BI governance and the perceptions of BI’s characteristics influence the successful deployment of BI. Organizations that practice good BI governance with strong moral and financial support from upper management have an opportunity to realize the dream of having successful BI initiatives in place. The scope of BI governance includes providing sufficient support and commitment in BI funding and implementation, laying out proper BI infrastructure and staffing and establishing a corporate-wide policy and procedures regarding BI. The perceptions about the characteristics of BI such as its relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, and observability are also significant in ensuring BI success. The most important results of this study indicated that with BI successfully deployed, executives would use the knowledge provided for their necessary actions in sustaining the organizations’ competitive advantage in terms of economics, social, and environmental issues.

This study contributes significantly to the existing literature that will assist future BI researchers especially in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In particular, the model will help practitioners to consider the resources that they are likely to consider when deploying BI. Finally, the applications of this study can be extended through further adaptation in other industries and various geographic contexts.