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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the interaction between sentiments and past prices can lead to higher abnormal profit in futures markets. Such examinations allow the authors to relate the paper to the debate that focuses on examining the behavior of different types of traders in futures market, and who among these traders destabilize the markets.

First, the authors develop new dynamic strategies in US futures market that combine sentiment by type of traders based on trader position provided by the Disaggregated Commitments of Traders with short-term contrarian signals. Next, the authors adjust the abnormal profits to the CAPM model and Miffre and Rallis’s (2007) model. Finally, the authors use the Du (2012) decomposition methodology.

The main findings are that the abnormal profit is more pronounced when the authors combine past returns with lagged high producer/merchant/processor/user or low managed money sentiment. The results from swap dealer or other reportable groups show that there is no pervasive directional relation between their sentiment and contrarian profit. A further investigation of the sources of abnormal profits demonstrates that these profits survive even after the adjustment of obtained return to risk. Instead, these profits are mainly due to the overreaction to the news by irrational traders.

Based on behavioral finance theories, the authors conclude that producer, merchant, processor and user behave like irrational traders, while managed money traders behave like rational ones. Given that current regulatory proposes the limitation of speculation, the policy implications of these results are important. Therefore, these findings suggest that policy distinctions on trading motives may be more challenging to construct than ever.

This study aims to apply unit root test to investigate the behavior of Chinese firms toward their leverage policy. The study is based on two influential and competing theories of capital structure.

This study applies unit root test to investigate the behavior of Chinese firms toward their leverage policy. The study is based on two influential and competing theories of capital structure. Trade off theory advocates that firms have a target level of leverage ratio and that firms try to achieve that optimal leverage ratio, whereas pecking order theory argues that firms have no target level of leverage and that they follow a specific pattern of leverage. For this purpose, this study applies a Fisher type unit root test to 12,808 firm level observations. The data are unbalanced and cover a period from 1991 to 2014.

The results reveal the presence of a stationary behavior across short-term, long-term and total leverage policies. For short-term leverage policy, 21 per cent firms show stationary behavior, while for long-term, 20 per cent show a targeting behavior; for the total leverage policy 17 per cent of firms are found to follow a tradeoff model. To make the findings more interesting sample was further classified into profit and loss making firms. The study finds that loss making firms do not follow a target level of leverage in China. Furthermore, unit root is applied to all firms before and after crises-2008. It is revealed that stationary behavior is more prevalent before crises-2008.

This study is highly important from the point of view that it quantifies firms into distinct categories of following specific model of capital structure. To the best of the author’s knowledge, the findings of this study add to current research knowledge about Chinese firms with respect to adjustment behavior toward a target capital structure.

There has been a long debate, with an extensive literature, over the control of the firm: who controls it, and how, and what implications does this have for managerial objectives and performance? It is not too simplistic to describe the argument for the most part as between those who see control by shareholders predominating, with the consequence that profit maximisation is the objective, and those who stress control by managers, leading to some other objective being followed — there being many and various alternatives canvassed (e.g. Marris, 1964; Leibenstein, 1966). In recent years, the partisans of shareholder control have been stressing the scope for it even where there was no single holding, or group of holdings, even approaching a majority of the shares. (For the US, see, among others, the Patman Report (1968) and Mintz et al. (1985); for the UK, see Francis (1980a), and Nyman and Silberston (1978)).

The purpose of this paper is to identify the typology of Chinese indigenous exporters by incorporating proactive‐reactive and long‐ and short‐term export motivations as inputs. This study also seeks to find out whether, when driven with a different strength of four export motives, firms differ significantly in terms of commitment, learning, competence and performance.

This paper employs cluster analysis to explore the typology of Chinese exporters and conducts ANOVA to compare subsequent differences in organizational characteristics, competence and performance. Case studies are then used to validate and exemplify the typology.

Findings suggest that Chinese exporters fall into four segments: the prospector, the strategist, the hesitator and the experimentalist. Each shows a unique set of organizational characteristics and different performances. The prospector is most competitive and the best performer, followed by the strategist.

The study uses limited export motives and profiling variables to understand this in a static way. Other motives and profiling variables are welcomed, and future study can address this in a dynamic way.

The findings suggest an evolutionary path for exporters and implies how to strengthen proactive and long‐term motives in order to achieve superior performance.

This paper for the first time looks at firms that are already involved in exporting, how differently they are motivated and how their initial internationalization motivations lead to sharp differences in export performance.

The current chapter is a tentative step toward investigating the allocation of advertising budget between the internet platform and the entity platform according to the long-term and short-term achievement of advertising investment. We provide a decision-making framework on how to allocate the advertising budget to the two platforms for the best results. The integrated effect of advertising investment consists of two parts. Goodwill and customer scale reflect the long-term achievement, and sale profit represents the short-term achievement. We selected some representative feasible investment plans as decision-making units (DMUs), and calculated the values of sale profit, goodwill, and customer scale as three outputs. To determine the best advertising investment plan, we use data envelopment analysis (DEA) model to seek efficient plans, and then determine the best one from those efficient plans through preference investigation and super-efficiency technique.

This paper aims to provide a new conceptual approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR), termed enlightened shared value (ESV), by applying the social dilemma paradigm and long-term value maximization.

In this conceptual paper, the author analyzes CSR as an organizational social dilemma, where the conflicts among stakeholders and between short- and long-term outcomes are inevitable. To minimize these conflicts, firms need to aim at long-term value maximization to provide the maximum outcome to the firm and satisfy all relevant stakeholders. Adopting these perspectives, the author introduces ESV and compares ESV with major CSR approaches.

ESV provides a clear metric and the method for CSR, which is lacking in existing CSR approaches. Consequently, ESV is superior to and has better applicability than existing CSR approaches. The author suggests that shifting focus to long-term outcomes can reduce the conflicts in CSR and make CSR a win-win game.

As an alternative to existing CSR approaches, ESV can provide the best outcome to the firm and all relevant stakeholders. ESV adds the understanding of CSR’s theoretical discussions and provides a practical guideline to practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to advance a research agenda on the topic of problematising profit and profitability. This paper also acts as an introduction to this Accounting, Auditing & Accountability (AAAJ) special section which aims to foster the development of literature focussing on critically evaluating issues surrounding profit and profitability and their sometimes, deleterious effects on society. The authors encourage an interdisciplinary discussion on the concepts of profit and profitability and various ways in which the authors could potentially problematise these concepts.

The authors undertake a purposive interdisciplinary review to provide context on problematising profit and profitability by briefly discussing the evolution of the concept of profit and by reviewing some contemporary debates and discussions about the role and status of profit and profitability.

In order to further develop the literature on problematising profit and profitability, it is important to broaden the analytical framework in order to (1) uncover the assumptions that make profitable activities possible as well as justifications of such activities; (2) analyse the practices of profit not only in the sense of computational practices but also in the sense of strategic and rhetorical calculations; (3) evaluate the practices of profit and profitability where they are situated within social and power relationships and (4) connect practices of profit to specific social imaginaries of profit.

In setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism and encourages box-breaking research in the research community focussing on problematising profit and profitability in various settings. The perspectives offered in this paper provides not only a basis for further research in this critical area of discourse and regulation on the role and status of profit and profitability but also provides emancipatory potential for practitioners (to be reflective of their practices and their undesired consequences of such practices) whose overarching focus is on these accounting numbers.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to compare trends, drivers, and best sustainable development (SD) practices in the Nordic region and California, USA.Design/methodology/approach – Four research propositions are explored: (1) SD is driven by governmental, economic, and social/cultural influences. (2) Social democracy and mixed economies in the Nordic region influence SD differently than the free market system of the United States. (3) The profit-centered, short-term view in the United States impacts SD differently than the longer-term approach in the Nordic region. (4) The egalitarian culture in the Nordic region influences SD differently than the entrepreneurial culture in the United States. The study incorporates a comprehensive literature review, 34 field interviews and research observations in the United States and the Nordic region.Findings – California and the Nordics have similar market economies where SD is largely driven by private sector; however, the role of government more directly influences SD in the Nordic region. Also, the profit-centered, entrepreneurial view of the United States drives innovation in SD based on short-term profitability gains, which ultimately hinders long-term solutions. Alternatively, the egalitarian culture in the Nordic region manifests in more focused and quicker adoption of SD policies. Lastly, the Nordics have a broad range of SD goals and a competitive advantage in key SD technologies. Conversely, California pursues a large variety of technologies without clearly defined goals that tend to be less effective than the Nordic countries.Originality/value of chapter – The chapter identified similarities and differences in SD trends, best practices, policies, and attitudes: California compared to Nordic countries.

To analyse the role of after‐sales services in manufacturing contexts, and the related after‐sales performance measurement systems.

An exploratory case study research was performed in the automotive, household appliance, IT and consumer electronics industries. The sample is made up of 48 firms with after‐sales operations in Italy.

The role attributed to after‐sales activities in the IT and consumer electronics and household appliance industries shows an orientation to improve company image, customer satisfaction and retention (marketing focus). A different situation characterises the companies studied in the automotive industry. In most firms, however, measurement systems are quite simple and short‐term oriented, especially in the IT and consumer electronics and household appliance industries. The measurement of non‐financial performance emphasises effectiveness rather than efficiency, and the automotive industry, on the whole, presents more advanced measurement systems, together with more integrated strategic management of after‐sales. The household appliance industry, on the other hand, due to the significant presence of SMEs, is characterised by less sophisticated performance measurement systems.

Provides a representation of current empirical practices in after‐sales role and performance measurement, a topic insufficiently covered by conceptual and empirical research.

Share pledge is a popular way to raise funds in China, but it aggravates information asymmetry. As an indispensable information intermediary in the financial market, media coverage affects asset price and pricing efficiency and impacts information asymmetry. This study aims to explore the governance role of media coverage as an information intermediary in the share pledge context in China.

Moderating effect and mediating effect analyses are the primary methods used to test the governance role of media coverage. The ordinary least squares model was used to test the relationship between share pledge and market performance and then proved the moderating effect of media coverage toward the corporate market value of pledge firms. Accounting earnings value relevance models were explored to test the path of media coverage on firm market value by mediating effect analysis. At last, subgroup tests were used to verify the heterogeneity of the moderating effect of media coverage.

In the context of share pledge in China, the higher the share pledge ratio, the higher is the market value of listed firms, which verifies the motivation of controlling shareholders to avoid the transfer of control right and the motivation to tunneling. Media coverage has a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between share pledge rate and corporate value and has a significant impact on the accounting earnings value relevance of share pledge firms. From the perspective of long-term earnings, media coverage reduces the market performance of share pledge firms by reducing the value correlation of accounting earnings information. From the short-term price point of view, media coverage reduces the market performance of share pledge firms by improving the value correlation of accounting earnings information. Furthermore, media coverage has a more significant moderating effect in state-owned share pledge firms and low information transparency and low information disclosure quality firms.

This paper does not distinguish the mode difference of spreading news and the impact of non-pledge media coverage. Also, this paper does not consider factors other than accounting information value relevance when exploring how media coverage affects the corporate market value. Share pledge firms should use media for publicity and play a role in media governance and should actively improve their information disclosure quality, strengthen communication with investors and reduce information asymmetry fundamentally.

This paper diversify the governance choices for share pledge firms and has important implications for firms, investors, information intermediaries and regulators. Media reports play an increasingly important role today, and any reports and predictions of major events may profoundly affect investors’ decisions. Although media reports can make up for the weakness of accounting information disclosure of equity pledge companies in some sense, it is still not a long-term strategy. Equity pledge companies should not only make use of media for publicity and play a role of media governance but also actively improve their information disclosure quality.

This paper focuses on share pledge firms to carry out in-depth research. Based on exploring the influence mechanism of share pledges, the authors find the importance of media governance. This paper expands the literature about the economic consequences of share pledges and provides empirical data for media governance of share pledge firms. This paper innovatively proves the governance role of media coverage from the view of accounting information value relevance. The main innovation point is the long and short-term perspective analysis of the influence of media coverage on the correlation of accounting earnings value. The heterogeneity effect analysis of media coverage also reflects the depth and strong practical guiding significance of this study.