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The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of perplexity in young players’ experiences within an educational videogame and how reflective thinking can help them to get out of perplexing scenarios.

We used a constructivist grounded theory approach and the lenses of Dewey’s conceptualization of perplexity and reflective thinking to examine young players’ in-game experiences.

We find that perplexity in gameplay is an experience that occurs when players encounter uncertainty about where to go or what to do next in the game. Findings reveal that while playing an educational game players engaged in two forms of perplexity – exploration-based and puzzle-based. Additionally, we unpack how players overcome these perplexing scenarios by reflecting on the information provided in the game.

While in a state of perplexity, reflecting on the in-game information aids players to think and make meaning, thus supporting learning. We provide suggestions for how to better utilize perplexity as an in-game design mechanism to encourage young players to reflect on in-game information.

This empirical study is original in its context of studying the phenomenon of perplexity in videogames and young players’ in-game reflection experiences.

Computing technology is becoming ubiquitous within modern society and youth use technology regularly for school, entertainment and socializing. Yet, despite societal belief that computing technology is neutral, the technologies of today’s society are rife with biases that harm and oppress populations that experience marginalization. While previous research has explored children’s values and perceptions of computing technology, few studies have focused on youth conceptualizations of this technological bias and their understandings of how computing technology discriminates against them and their communities. This paper aims to examine youth conceptualizations of inequities in computing technology.

This study analyzes a series of codesign sessions and artifacts partnering with eight black youth to learn about their conceptualizations of technology bias.

Without introduction, the youth demonstrated an awareness of visible negative impacts of technology and provided examples of this bias within their lives, but they did not have a formal vocabulary to discuss said bias or knowledge of biased technologies less visible to the naked eye. Once presented with common technological biases, the youth expanded their conceptualizations to include both visible and invisible biases.

This paper builds on the current body of literature around how youth view computing technology and provides a foundation to ground future pedagogical work around technological bias for youth.

We investigate the relative roles of key components of earnings change in explaining the value relevance of earnings across different life‐cycle stages of the firm. We hypothesize that firms in different life‐cycle stages take different strategic actions: change in sales is emphasized in the growth and mature stages, while in later stages, profitability is emphasized. Because payoffs to such strategies vary across the life‐cycle, the stock market reaction to the success firms have in employing these strategic actions is likely to vary across the life‐cycle. To test our hypotheses, we disaggregate changes in earnings into three key components: earnings change from change in sales, earnings change from change in profitability, and an interaction term comprising both sales change and profitability change. Our findings are consistent with our hypotheses: when firms are in the growth stage, the value‐relevance of change in sales is relatively greater than that of change in profitability. In the mature stage, the value relevance of change in profitability increases, relative to that of change in sales. When firms are in stagnant stage, the value‐relevance of changes in profitability are relatively greater than that of change in sales. Collectively, the results demonstrate a shift in the value relevance of earnings components from a growth emphasis early in the life‐cycle to a profitability emphasis later in the life‐cycle.

This study investigates how investors perceive the impact of U.S.‐based MNCs geographic and business segment diversification upon their earnings performance. Pooled cross‐sectional annual earnings response regressions for the years 1993 through 1997 are used for this investigation. Our results show that geographic segment diversification is valued by investors more than the business segment diversification especially in two cases: 1) when the business segmentation is low; and 2) when geographic segmentation is high. These results imply that business segment diversification is only valued when it takes place in international markets where it is relatively more difficult for individual investors to replicate industry diversified portfolio for themselves. Our research illuminates the contextual aspects of investors' perceptions of geographic and business segment diversification for multinational corporations by explicitly controlling for one dimension of corporate diversification while examining the earning‐returns impact of the other type of corporate diversification.

Discusses three theories on the link between multinationality and investment value (internalization, imperfect world capital markets and managerial objectives) and develops hypotheses on its relationship with the informativeness of accounting earnings and levels of discretionary accruals. Tests them on 1994‐1998 data from a sample of US multinationals using regression techniques; and presents the results which suggest that the level of multinationality is positively related to the magnitude of discretionary accruals and to the informativeness of accounting earnings.

The purpose of this paper is to test the political costs hypothesis in emerging economies characterized by interventionist governments and weak protection of property rights. The paper uses executives’ political connection and state control to measure firms’ political costs.

Based on a sample of Tunisian firms, univariate and multivariate analyses are used to test whether firms’ political costs have any impact on earnings management.

The empirical analysis indicates that the executives’ political connection is not directly related to earnings management. However, the interaction between executives’ political connection and the state control affects the firm’s sensitivity to political pressure and its earnings management practices. More specifically, this study provides evidence that non-connected firms and state-controlled firms attempt to use accounting policies to decrease their earnings especially during periods of the former government when they had to face high political costs. This finding is robust to comparing means of political cost indicators between different groups. Indeed, private firms with political connection enjoy a significantly lower insurance right, tax and donations and grants compared to other firms.

This study provides empirical evidence for the specific application of accounting theory in emerging economies.

Political influence may be an important criterion that will be used by auditors and investors to appreciate and detect specific manipulations of accounting earnings. Similarly, regulators should be aware of the political factors effect on discretionary behavior of managers to provide appropriate rules and standards.

The study is a pioneer in proving that a firm’s size is not always a suitable measure of its political cost. It extends the accounting literature on the role of political economy in the application of the political costs hypothesis. This hypothesis is confirmed in emerging economies by providing new and significantly measure of firms’ political costs

This paper aims to investigate an interesting yet mostly ignored distinction within external CEO successions: outside successors who have previous CEO experience and those who do not. It examines stock market reaction, compensation and firm performance prior and post‐succession.

The authors used an event study, “Patell Z‐statistic” and “Rank Z‐statistic” to test cumulative abnormal return before and after the successions. They also used probit and OLS regressions to examine firm performance and CEO compensation prior and post‐succession.

The authors find that the stock market reacts positively to the hiring of an outsider who is an exCEO. Compared with firms that hire non‐exCEOs, firms that hire exCEOs had higher debt ratios and greater bankruptcy chances pre‐succession, but post‐succession, these firms still have worse financial performances. Non‐exCEOs come from better performing firms than exCEOs. There is no consistently significant difference in compensation between an exCEO and a non‐exCEO, though the compensation for both increases significantly from that of the predecessors and that of their previous positions.

Future research could focus on the cost‐benefit tradeoff of hiring an exCEO. It would be interesting to examine the role of the board of directors in assessing this cost‐benefit tradeoff and determining the optimal choice for the firm. An important aspect that has not been sufficiently examined in the literature is the CEO fit. Hiring an exCEO may not always be the right choice for the firm. Another area for future research could examine how the post‐succession performance is affected by exCEO tenure in previous CEO position(s) and whether the exCEO worked in several industries or in the same industry.

This paper also has implications for the board of directors. There seems to be a negative transfer of human capital when it comes to hiring exCEOs. The human capital theory suggests that job‐specific experience positively relates to job performance. According to Hamori and Koyuncu, prior CEO experience may “lead to the formation of knowledge corridors and decision‐making templates that make it difficult for individuals to take in inconsistent information or take actions that are different from past ones in a changed context. This, in turn, undermines performance”. Boards of directors should put more effort into considering inside relay successions and should be cautious when hiring an outsider who has prior CEO experience. A best‐of‐both‐worlds scenario may be for boards to hire exCEOs into top executive positions, such as COO and/or president, so as to give them a chance to be groomed for the top position and familiarize themselves with the firm while still benefiting from their prior CEO experience.

There is very little research on the distinction between outside CEOs with previous CEO experience and those with no such experience. This paper tries to shed some light on this important issue in corporate governance in order to explain why boards of directors would hire an outsider with or without previous CEO experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of auditor type on management’s choice of forecast precision and management forecast errors, including the effects of corporate governance. The authors use a different sample and a larger period of years to determine whether prior inferences are robust across these dimensions as well as various corporate governance and other control variables.

This quasi-experimental study uses archival data in regression-based analyses.

The authors find firms with Big 5 auditors issue forecasts that have larger forecast errors are biased downward and are less precise. The inferences of this study are robust to the inclusion of corporate governance variables, along with an extensive number of control variables found important in prior studies.

While the sample and time period may be limited, the authors have no evidence this biases the results.

More stringent auditing may have an unintended consequence of reducing the informativeness of management forecasts, as managers act strategically in regards to forecast accuracy, bias and precision.

The inferences of this study indicate that while higher quality audits could constrain earnings management, higher quality audits may induce management to provide forecasts that have greater errors, may be biased and may be less informative.

The results and inferences of this study suggest that the inferences in prior studies hold across a different sample and a different time period. This is important given concerns in the academic community regarding the extent to which prior studies can be replicated.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the presence of controlling shareholder affects the value of diversification based on Indonesian listed firms. It further examines whether the degree of controlling ownership and the types of controlling ownership matter.

Panel data were used over the period 2006-2010 with dynamic generalised method-of-moments estimations and it defined diversification as industrial diversification, international diversification or diversification in both. A few different thresholds for the control rights of the largest shareholder are also set.

The results show that industrial diversification improves firm value but international diversification does not, while diversified in both strategies discounted firm value. The presence of a controlling shareholder is found to have a significant diversification discount, and the effect is nonlinear, where the entrenchment effect occurs around 20 to60 per cent threshold of controlling across all types of diversified firms. Last, foreign firms are found to enjoy more value from industrial diversification, but it takes an adverse turn when these involve both diversification strategies. Government firms do not seem to be different from family firms.

The study shows the need to differentiate diversification strategies and account for non-linearity and ownership identity in modelling diversification value. Also, the degree of shareholders’ control can be a significant channel to address the agency issue on diversification value.

Under the backdrop of unique Indonesian corporate ownership, the presence of controlling owners is shown, and their ownership affects the value of diversification. The entrenchment effect however appears only at a certain range of ownership. This is a crucial guide for the shareholders to ensure an appropriate monitoring system is installed to maximize the shareholder’s value, especially in family firms.

The value of this paper is twofold. At first, the first empirical evidence on the diversification debate with Indonesian firms for its unique institutional setting is presented. Second, the standard modelling framework to investigate the types of ownership on diversification value is extended, which has rarely been covered in previous investigations.