Search results

The purpose of this research is to examine why and when restaurant consumers use and contribute user-generated reviews. This research is needed to determine the relevance of user-generated restaurant reviews in the current marketplace.

The research methodology is based on a quantitative approach, and focused on current Yelp.com users as its population. Questions focused on the amount of usage, motives for usage, level of trust, users’ tendencies to seek novelty in restaurants and motives for contribution.

Users tend to trust the reviews on Yelp.com and engage in the community aspects of the platform. Yelp.com users also are altruistic in their motivation for contributing reviews to Yelp.com. Yelp.com users who access it tend to act on the information found within the reviews.

Research articles have focused on user-generated reviews in the past; however, few have examined motivations of using and posting restaurant reviews. The value of conducting research comes from being able to understand the importance of user-generated restaurant reviews for customers in a comprehensive manner.

US Premium Beef Ltd is a cooperative partnership between all segments of the beef industry value chain, affording each segment an interest in the key stages of beef production and processing, as well as an equal share of the financial risks and rewards. This “value‐added” strategy is accomplished through vertical integration and adding a quality‐based pricing structure to more closely link beef producers and consumers. The case study is an example of supply chain management as a strategic response to a mature industry. It also exemplifies how ownership structure of the firm, particularly the emergence of new‐generation cooperatives, is employed as a strategic factor in developing a new competitive approach in an industry characterized by sales decline and aggressive competition from substitute products such as poultry and pork.

US Premium Beef Ltd is a cooperative partnership between all segments of the beef industry value chain, affording each segment an interest in the key stages of beef production and processing, as well as an equal share of the financial risks and rewards. This “value‐added” strategy is accomplished through vertical integration and adding a quality‐based pricing structure to more closely link beef producers and consumers. The case study is an example of supply chain management as a strategic response to a mature industry. It also exemplifies how ownership structure of the firm, particularly the emergence of new‐generation cooperatives, is employed as a strategic factor in developing a new competitive approach in an industry characterized by sales decline and aggressive competition from substitute products such as poultry and pork.

The aim of this article is to summarise the available evidence from systematic reviews about the effectiveness of interventions to prevent or treat child physical abuse and neglect. A computerised search was undertaken of major electronic databases up to December 2005 using key search terms. Only systematic reviews were included in which the primary studies evaluated the effectiveness of targeted or indicated interventions for child physical abuse or neglect. A total of 31 systematic reviews were identified and 15 met all the inclusion criteria. They covered a range of interventions/services, including home visiting, parenting programmes, multi‐component interventions, intensive family preservation services, family‐focused casework and multi‐systemic family therapy. There was limited evidence of the effectiveness of services in improving objective measures of abuse and neglect, due in part to methodological issues involved in their measurement, but good evidence of modest benefits in improving a range of outcomes that are associated with physical abuse and neglect, including parental and family functioning and child development. The results also showed some interventions (eg. media‐based and perinatal coaching) to be ineffective with high‐risk families. The evidence provided by these reviews has clear implications for children's services in the UK and other western developed countries.

This paper aims to examine the impact of a firm’s governance characteristics on the signals released during the initial public offering (IPO) process. This paper focuses on the role of the firm’s founder and how different signals convey or diminish agency issues of adverse selection and moral hazard prior to IPO. This study also explores the performance impact (underpricing) of firm founder involvement on signal effectiveness.

This paper examines 122 firms during the IPO process to determine the influence that the founder’s presence, position and ownership has on signaling behaviors as well as on firm performance.

The authors find that founders influence how often the firm files amendments to the prospectus. Furthermore, the results suggest that agency-reducing signals are complicated and can interact to enhance either positive or negative signals that impact underpricing at IPO.

The findings offer insights concerning how signalers can more effectively manage multiple signals that may interact negatively with firm characteristics. This study also provides contributions to both signaling and agency theories, discusses implications for practitioners and suggests opportunities for future research.

This has important implications for founders and managers of firms approaching IPO. The results suggest that founders are better off filing fewer addendums to their S-1 during the IPO process as this decreases underpricing. Underwriters and investors will be interested in these outcomes as identifying signals is an important factor when pricing firm valuation. Similarly, investors seek to identify firms that have a higher likelihood of underpricing because underpricing increases investor recognition and subsequent long-term impact on performance.

The findings offer insights concerning how signalers can more effectively manage multiple signals that may interact negatively with firm characteristics. The authors extend research in entrepreneurship and marketing by exploring indirect ways firms can communicate to investors using signaling, to increase value during the IPO process. This study provides contributions to both signaling and agency theories, discusses implications for practitioners and suggests opportunities for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the financial performance of green and traditional mutual funds in the USA.

A total of 131 green mutual funds identified by US SIF, were compared with the averages of all traditional mutual funds in their respective Morningstar categories. Performance measures analyzed included annualized rates of return, expense ratios, and Sharpe ratios, among others. Most data pertained to at least the past three years, while other data pertained to the most recent 5 to 15 years.

The results demonstrate that green mutual funds have generated lower returns and similar risks compared to traditional mutual funds in their respective Morningstar categories. Green mutual funds have underperformed on a risk‐adjusted basis.

Since there is no formal definition of a green mutual fund, the researcher and investor must make a subjective call in assessing which funds invest “green”. However, at least in this early stage in the history of green investing, green mutual funds have underperformed their peers.

Results confirm the limitations of green investing as suggested by various researchers, among them Sharpe, Rudd and Kurtz and DiBartolomeo. Results stand in contrast to Corson and Van Dyck and Statman, among others, which reported no significant underperformance for socially responsible investments.

The purpose of this paper is to present results from three years of a longitudinal “Assessment Attitudes and Practices” survey collected from a large school district in the Southern USA.

This paper focuses on both formative and summative “assessment practices” results from secondary (middle and high school) social studies teachers.

There was no statistically significant difference between secondary social studies teachers’ use of assessments and secondary teachers of other disciplines, nor was there a statistically significant difference in assessment use by year. Data results by assessment type were ranked in order of how often teachers claimed to use various assessment practices, and discussed in terms of assessment practices recommended by NCSS. Social studies teachers in this study were often more likely to report use of assessments of knowledge (including selected-response items) than performance-based assessment techniques (such as authentic assessments).

The lack of statistically significant differences in assessment practices along disciplinary lines indicates homogeneity in the use of assessments that does not do justice to social studies.

Using Common Core standards or not, having a 1:1 technological environment or not, teacher respondents essentially reported using the same assessments, perhaps because high-stakes assessments did not change.

There is a need for professional development that helps teachers see how performance-based assessments can be used to boost student performance on high-stakes assessments.

Studies of actual assessment practices (as opposed to ideas about how teachers should assess) are still quite rare, and provide a helpful window in understanding what is actually happening inside schools.