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This paper aims to examine whether investment efficiency improves after publicly‐traded firms are taken private.

The analysis uses univariate comparisons and regression analysis of panel data.

Before going private, firms' investment ratios and investment opportunities are similar to investment ratios and investment opportunities of peer firms. However, after going private, the investment ratios significantly decrease to levels significantly below the investment ratios of peer firms. Additionally, investment becomes less sensitive to investment opportunities and more sensitive to operating profits and cash holdings. Finally, cash becomes more sensitive to cash‐flow after going private. These results suggest that firms become more financially constrained, under‐invest relative to their industry peers, and invest less efficiently after going private.

Improvements in investment efficiency are often cited as a contributing factor to the value gains associated with going‐private transactions. However, whether investment efficiency improves when firms go private remains unanswered by prior research. In theory, investment efficiency should improve if private firms are shielded from the market pressure for short‐term earnings and better able to invest for long‐term value creation. Conversely, it is possible that the high levels of debt associated with these transactions impose financial constraints that reduce investment efficiency. The results of this study suggest that investment efficiency does not improve after going private.

When Rambo Last Blood hit the screens in 2019 to an almost unanimous thumbs down from the critics, it seemed as if Sylvester Stallone's ‘last outing’ as his iconic action hero, John Rambo was to bow out with more of a violent whimper than a spectacular bang. But action heroes never really do know when to quit. There is always one last mission to undertake. In an online interview in September 2019, Stallone indicated that Rambo 6 could well be on the cards. This chapter will discuss not only ideas about ‘Rambo’ as a character and his character arc, but posit the idea that Stallone, through the process of gerontology, has moved through the decades to become not a simplification or distillation of a cinematic action hero, but rather a much more complex one that asks questions about the politics of the era, masculinity, fragility and ageing.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the experiences of a small business, Deer Creek Land Developments (DCLD), which has been very successful in negotiating the competitive pressures in a mature industry over time and has built sustainable competitive advantage. The firm has been quite successfully navigating the ups and downs of the market. The case provides an excellent example of how small businesses can open their business models to respond to changes in the external environment, such as an economic downturn, and/or simply to grow.

The paper uses a single case study approach. Detailed interviews of the owner and the manager were used to collect data for the case study.

DCLD's success is found to be hinged on its ability to consistently enhance operational efficiencies, move to higher valuations by adopting an open business model that exploits core in‐house capabilities and those acquired through contractors and partner organizations.

The paper provides several interesting insights useful for small business managers and entrepreneurs. Small businesses can use openness of both types, as demonstrated in the case, to create strategic differentiation and also to reduce operating costs.

This paper initiates a rich field enquiry, which provides some interesting insights to small business managers. The case study is used to demonstrate how a small business can effectively use an open business model to negotiate competitive and environmental pressures.

This paper examines the perceptions of senior auditors in large firms in Sydney, Kuala Lumpur and Auckland concerning the nature and assessment of the inherent risk in risk based auditing. The geographic dispersion of participants from internationally linked firms does not appear to result in any cultural and geographic effects. Assessment of inherent risk appears predominantly qualitative and is not necessarily linked to the comprehensive aggregation of risks typically presented in audit risk models. There is some blurring of control risk factors with inherent risk and one‐third of participants assess inherent and control risk jointly. Risk factors appear to be grouped in importance in a manner that suggests different attitudes to management, system‐oriented, environmental and oversight risks. The identification of four possible factors (internal risk, external risk, system risk and oversight threats) may provide a basis for further investigation of how auditors assess inherent risk. There is an apparent division between “internally” and “externally” sourced risk.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the usefulness of the concept to thinking about Research Data Management (RDM). The concept of “wicked problems” seeks to differentiate very complex, intractable challenges from tamer issues where approaches to problem solving are well-understood.

The paper is based on and co-authored by a collaboration of practitioners from libraries, information technology and research administration, with facilitators from the Sheffield Information School. Participants worked together in two-day-long workshops to understand the wicked problem concept and advice on leadership in wicked problem contexts.

Participants concurred that RDM had many features of a wicked problem and most of Grint’s advice on leadership for wicked problems also resonated. Some elements of the issue were simple; participants were optimistic about improving the situation over time. Participants were resistant to the more negative or fatalistic connotations of the phrase “wicked problem”. Viewing RDM as a wicked problem is an interesting way of looking at it as a challenge for support professionals.

The notion of a wicked problem is a generative concept that can be usefully added to professional vocabulary.

The paper captures an in-depth response from practitioners to the notion of wicked problems as a lens for examining RDM.

Only a handful of studies have examined social interactions between parents and children around food choice, though these have important implications for health. Moreover, we know very little about how socioeconomic status might influence these exchanges, including the nature and outcomes of children’s requests for specific foods and drinks.

Data are from a survey of 401 families with children ages 2-17. Using formal mediation models to decompose direct and indirect effects, we test three potential mechanisms of socioeconomic differences in caregivers’ propensity to indulge children’s requests for specific foods or drinks: (1) Children’s food-seeking behaviors; (2) Caregivers’ nutritional attitudes and values; and (3) Caregiver social control and monitoring of children’s diets. We also present a symbolic indulgence explanation, which is not empirically testable using our data, but is consistent with qualitative evidence (Pugh, 2009).

We find significant SES differences in the frequency and nature of children’s requests for foods, nutritional attitudes and values, and opportunities for caregiver monitoring of children’s eating habits, but these mechanisms explain little of the association between socioeconomic status and caregiver responses.

Limitations of this study include the non-probability sample and the inability to demonstrate the meaning and intention underlying SES effects. Nonetheless, our findings provide information about how SES does and does not influence parent-child interactions around food choice, which has important implications for developing effective policies and interventions for improving children’s diets.

In light of null findings regarding alternative explanations, children’s requests for unhealthy food and parents’ willingness to grant them may be related to cultural practices around parenting that differ by social class. Consequently, culture may be an important yet under-emphasized mechanism contributing to socioeconomic disparities in children’s dietary habits and health.

In a fast-paced and hypercompetitive environment, organizational members are awash with paradoxes where they are forced to accomplish opposing goals simultaneously (“both/and”) instead of choosing one over the other (“either/or”). The literature has acknowledged paradox as a common type of contradiction in managing information and information technology (IT), but few studies have investigated how individuals can leverage paradoxical tensions. Drawing upon paradox theory, this study develops a research model that embodies a “both/and” paradigm in paradoxical tensions via analytical alignment, a paradox mindset and resilience under environmental dynamism.

This study examines the research model using hierarchical regression analysis with 308 analytics experts.

Empirical results find that the alignment of analytical technology and data-driven culture (AT-2DC) has a positive effect on a paradox mindset. Results also show that a paradox mindset has a positive influence on resilience. AT-2DC alignment also mediates the relationship between paradox mindset and resilience. In addition, AT-2DC alignment is more critical to a paradox mindset under a high level of environmental dynamism.

This study sheds light on how individuals can leverage paradoxical tensions with a “both/and” perspective and stay resilient when managing opposing demands and changes.