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The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of trade mispricing in the US fresh banana trade with Latin American and Caribbean countries using a new alternative measure in estimating arm’s length price.

A key feature of the research design is that we use the actual free market price of commodity (e.g. fresh banana price) as a benchmark for arm’s length price rather than relying on interquartile range, which is known to be problematic.

The paper finds that when the degree of mispricing is measured by two widely used methods, interquartile price filter and partner-country methods, we find little evidence of undervaluation or overvaluation of US banana import. However, when we use the free-market price of fresh banana as a benchmark for arm’s length price, first adopted in this study, the average undervalued amount of trade compared to the total banana import declared value by the US importers is on average 54 per cent during the period between 2000 and 2009.

This study suggests a new simple measure in estimating arm’s length traction price in studying trade mispricing.

Presents a statistical auditing system which gives a methodology for statistical analysis of international trade prices. Discusses how this can help governments and international lending agencies, or internationally trading firms, determine the optimal level of audits and physical inspections of cargoes in order to detect abnormally priced imports and exports, using a cost ‐ benefit approach. Applies a computer program to analyse transactions in any commodity between the USA and any other country, and describes the data set and methodology for determining upper and lower bound prices, using the inter‐quartile range as the benchmark for determining abnormality. Presents results from earlier studies and gives an example of how the proposed statistical auditing system can be used.

The purpose of this paper is to identify capital flows due to trade misinvoicing in 30 African nations.

Data from 30 African nations were examined for deviations from average import and export prices as an indicator of capital flows This paper uses US customs data to document the amount of capital flows which may be hidden in commodity trade. Deviations from average prices (price filter matrix) within these commodity classes are used to identify abnormal prices and to produce conservative estimates of the amount of capital movement from 30 countries in Africa to the USA.

The results of this study demonstrate that, between 2000 and 2005, capital outflows from all 58 countries in Africa to the USA grew by more than 50 percent, through both low‐priced exports and high‐priced imports.

A clear understanding as to the true purpose of the overall capital movement is not easy to determine from the data. Approximately half of the countries (16 out of 30) utilized low‐priced exports as a means to move more money into the USA, while the other half (14 out of 30) used high‐priced exports to move the most money.

When trade misinvoicing is used as a tool to move capital in and out of a country or continent in order to evade taxes and/or customs duties, avoiding quotas, smuggling, and laundering illegally obtained money, or as a means of capital flight, the economic development of the given country is severely hindered. This movement of capital may be due to tax evasion, duty reduction, money laundering, capital flight, or other reasons beyond the scope of this paper.

The technique of using a price filter matrix can be of value to researchers and governments to identify capital flows due to trade misinvoicing.

With limited intracultural ethical research in evidence this paper contributes to the theoretical discussion of expatriate ethical acculturation. Of particular interest to this study are the ethical attitudes of subcultural groups, particularly managers, who because of overseas assignment or immigration, are operating outside their usual national location. Research was undertaken to investigate whether ethical divergence or convergence, through acculturation, exists with ex patriate managers, and over what time period. Two locations, Hong Kong and Canada, were chosen for comparative study and the results indicated an interesting dichotomy. Ethical convergence, the adopting of host country ethical values, is evident with Hong Kong Chinese expatriate managers in Canada but did not occur with North American expatriates in Hong Kong. For the expatriate Chinese manager the research findings indicate that Hong Kong Chinese managers now residing in Canada develop a unique set of ethical attitudes that are significantly different from those of local managers in Hong Kong yet also significantly different from the attitudes held by local Canadian managers. A subtle form of ethical convergence is occurring. No significant relationship was found between ethical acculturation and the length of time being an expatriate Hong Kong Chinese manager in Canada except on two issues. For these issues the longer the time spent in Canada the greater the rise in ethical attitudes. A heterogeneous group of expatriate managers in Hong Kong was also evaluated and while predicate similarities existed between expatriates from China and Macau, statistically significant differences in ethical perceptions were found between the general population of expatriate managers (i.e. American, Australasian, British etc.,) and local Hong Kong Chinese managers.

This study aims to the OQuaRE quality model to the developed methodology.

Ontologies are formal, well-defined and flexible representations of knowledge related to a specific domain. They provide the base to develop efficient and interoperable solutions. Hence, a proliferation of ontologies in many domains is unleashed. Then, it is necessary to define how to compare such ontologies to decide which one is the most suitable for the specific needs of users/developers. As the emerging development of ontologies, several studies have proposed criteria to evaluate them.

In a previous study, the authors propose a methodological process to qualitatively and quantitatively compare ontologies at Lexical, Structural and Domain Knowledge levels, considering correctness and quality perspectives. As the evaluation methods of the proposal are based on a golden-standard, it can be customized to compare ontologies in any domain.

To show the suitability of the proposal, the authors apply the methodological approach to conduct comparative studies of ontologies in two different domains, one in the robotic area, in particular for the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem; and the other one, in the cultural heritage domain. With these cases of study, the authors demonstrate that with this methodological comparative process, we are able to identify the strengths and weaknesses of ontologies, as well as the gaps still needed to fill in the target domains.

Using these metrics and the quality model from OQuaRE, the authors are incorporating a standard of software engineering at the quality validation into the Semantic Web.

This chapter presents a review of the state-of-the-art in the employee perspective on mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The authors’ aim is to enhance the understanding of the role of employees in M&As. This chapter contributes by presenting a synthesis of how the employee perspective has been studied by describing the methods, the context (industry and geographic location), and publication outlets. Furthermore, this chapter contributes by synthesizing the employee perspective literature into five distinct research streams: (1) employee reactions; (2) culture; (3) communication; (4) knowledge; and (5) speed. The authors reflect on the main findings of each stream and conclude by proposing future directions for research on the role of employees in M&As to (re)generate interest in the topic.

People believe that they know who they are and that who they are matters for what they do. These core beliefs seem so inherent to conceptualizations of what it means to have a self as to require no empirical support. After all, what is the point of a concept of self if there is no stable thing to have a concept about and who would care if that concept was stable if it was not useful in making it through the day? Yet the evidence for action-relevance and stability are surprisingly sparse.

This paper outlines the identity-based motivation theory, a theoretical approach that takes a new look at these assumptions and makes three core predictions as to when an accessible self-concept influences behavior. These are termed “dynamic construction”, “action-readiness”, and “interpretation of difficulty”. That is, rather than being stable, which identities come to mind and what they mean are dynamically constructed in context.

People interpret situations and difficulties in ways that are congruent with the currently active identities and prefer identity-congruent to identity-incongruent actions. When action feels identity-congruent, experienced difficulty highlights that the behavior is important and meaningful. When action feels identity-incongruent, the same difficulty suggests that the behavior is pointless and “not for people like me.”