Search results

Although many recognize China’s vast market potential, the challenges of doing business in an economy that was largely closed to market forces for a half century must be recognized. This paper examines the role of venture capital in China’s economic development. The potential impact of a healthy venture capital market is immense, but this healthy market is far from the reality in China. The major obstacles that must be addressed include the state control of vital institutions and regulation of economic activity, including restrictions on the flow of capital and currency.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the timing of upward asset revaluations using large UK data.

A standard logistic model is used to examine the timing of upward asset revaluations. The result is further confirmed by using the ordinary least squares regression.

UK firms with higher industrial leverage and share performance two years before the revaluation year are inclined to write up their assets, suggesting that firms choose not to recognise good news unless it has been supported by their superior market performance and industry norm. This finding differs from the leverage reduction as well as the signalling objective suggested by previous literature.

This paper provides the first UK evidence on the timing of upward asset revaluation, which further enhance the understanding of the economic determinants of upward asset revaluations.

This study aims to examine workplace stress in a random sample of litigated cases heard in UK courts. The majority of claims related to clinical depression. The alleged causes of workplace stress most commonly cited in the litigation included excessive workload, followed by poor management practices; organisational, economic or technical changes; aggressive management style; and bullying by co-workers.

The term claimant is used to refer to the worker who made the original complaint of workplace stress, and the term defendant refers to the employing organisation defending the claim. In an attempt to establish the number and type of claims brought forward, the population of individual case records relating to workplace stress was accessed electronically from a variety of legal databases.

The presence of effective workplace stress management policies were important interventions that played a particularly significant role in avoiding legal action and reducing employees’ detrimental experiences. A significant finding was that 94 per cent of the cases were found in favour of the employer as the defendant, and the implications of this for managerial practice are suggested. This analysis of 75 cases between 1992-2014 will shed valuable light on the nature of workplace stress claims heard in the courts and the likelihood of the claimant employee’s success in such cases.

Further work could be undertaken to examine the extent to which the legal framework could be regarded as encouraging a compensation culture and placing excessive burdens on employing organisations. This paper assesses the scope of liability for workplace stress through an analysis of some of the legal claims made and evaluates whether these sorts of fears are justified.

These court cases are real scenarios in which various organisations faced civil action arising from workplace stress claims. The main contribution that this research makes to the existing body of literature on the subject is to discern the different contexts that led to litigation in these cases.

Researchers have reported on the negative consequences associated with workplace stress, both for individuals and organisations (Cooper and Marshall, 1976). It has been recognised that employers have a duty, which is in many cases enforceable by law, to ensure that employees do not become ill (Michie, 2002). The aim of this paper is to analyse the legal record on litigation since 1992 and discuss how the findings inform the wider literature.

Workplace stress claims have been described as the “next growth area” in claims for psychiatric illness (Mullany and Handford, 1997; Elvin, 2008; Horsey and Rackley, 2009). Hugh Collins stated “owing to the limitations of the statutory compensatory scheme in the UK […] private law has been used to expand the range of protection against illness […] in the workplace” (Collins, 2003). To understand how court decisions are changing, the development of this body of law needs to be traced (Ivancevich et al., 1985).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the incremental information content of audit opinion while considering opinion determinants, such as auditor and auditee size, or a firm’s financial state.

A market valuation model is employed using US firm data collected over 30 years. The model relates stock returns to earnings and incorporates as additional variables auditors’ opinion types, opinion determinants and their interactions with audit expression.

The findings suggest that audit opinion has a significant market impact. The estimated positive or negative information content of the audit opinion types is associated with certain opinion determinants, such as auditor and auditee size and a firm’s financial state.

Additional firm-year observations regarding certain opinion qualifications could benefit future research.

This study offers useful insights by demonstrating the importance of auditing profession to the users of financial statements. It examines investors’ perception of each audit opinion type and the conditions under which this expression has the most serious effects. The results demonstrate the role of audit opinion and its cause-effect relationship with various economic events, allowing regulators not only to track the efficiency of various audit policy changes but also act preventively and amend the regulatory framework.

This paper empirically supports the significance of the auditing process and audit opinions by examining investor perceptions. It employs a value relevance model, in contrast to market-based research that adopts an event study methodology.

Inspectors visiting districts in connection with the Foreign Meat and Unsound Food Regulations have made detailed inquiries in certain instances in regard to local methods of administration of the Sale of Food and Drugs Acts. Special visits for this purpose have also been made to other districts where inquiry appeared to be specially called for. In the course of these inquiries it was found that in some instances the public analyst had made a report to his local authority on some special investigation which had been undertaken in the district respecting a particular article of food, but that copies of such report had not always reached the Board. During an inquiry in the county of Cheshire Dr. Coutts ascertained that the county analyst had made valuable reports in regard to butter and Cheshire cheese of which the Board were unaware. Reports of this nature are of much interest to this sub‐department, and it would be of advantage if local authorities would send to the Board copies of all special reports made by the public analyst.

Forecasting future period profitability is widely identified as an aim of financial statement analysis, and these forecasts are typically relied upon for the estimation of firm value. To facilitate this, the decomposition of earnings into its components or drivers, is typically advocated. This paper investigates the existence of systematic differences in persistence across the components of earnings. If components of earnings experience differences in persistence, this may provide insights into the determinants of aggregate earnings level and persistence. This paper provides evidence of differences in persistence between components of earnings. Differences are found between components formed on the basis of: financial ratios; operating and financing activities; and cash and accruals. Furthermore, there is evidence that earnings components improve the explanatory power of models evaluating aggregate earnings persistence, with this result being strongest for firms with extreme income decreasing accruals. Due to the pivotal role of earnings in firm valuation, the results from this paper have direct implications for valuation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the productivity performance at the firm level from the perspective of manufacturing capability development at the process level. Moreover, it reveals how alignment of manufacturing capabilities with market requirements has influenced a firm’s productivity over a period that includes the 2008 global recession.

A conceptual framework was derived from established theories and employed as part of a case study design encompassing a multiple methods research approach. The case of a UK SME was selected to reflect some of the issues associated with the wider productivity stagnation experienced by the UK economy in recent years.

The firm’s manufacturing strategy had become incrementally misaligned with market requirements due to external changes in its business environment. The complex relationships between capabilities such as quality, speed and cost were characterised. Realigning the firm’s manufacturing strategy to regain productivity performance required a range of prioritised actions including capital investment and changes in management practices concerning bottom-up process improvement and regular, top-down strategy review.

The findings of the case study cannot be generalised and the outcomes are specific to just one firm. However, the approach lends itself to replication, particularly within SMEs.

Prior studies have focussed on capability development at higher levels of abstraction. The study operationalized established theoretical perspectives at the firm level to derive context-based outcomes that can be used to improve manufacturing strategy alignment and productivity. Furthermore, the study contributes empirical evidence from the SME sector to the ongoing debate regarding the UK’s productivity puzzle.

It is an amazing fact that this country is one of the few that have not adopted a comprehensive system of food standards, but has relied on the administration of general provisions as to the purity of food; and it has been evident to officers engaged in enforcing these provisions that they were inadequate to deal effectively with all the cases in which foodstuffs of inferior quality were offered for sale to the public. Local authorities and courts of law have probably done their best within the limits of their legislative power to prevent as far as possible the sale of such foodstuffs, particularly where public health was endangered or there has been gross adulteration, but the subtlety of food adulteration in recent years has given rise to so much controversy as to how far the existing legislation has been contravened that the Minister of Health should be asked at the earliest opportunity to exercise the powers given to him in Section 8 of the Food and Drugs Act, 1938, to draft regulations as to the importation, preparation, storage, sale, delivery, etc., of food, and to include in such regulations a comprehensive system of food standards. There is ample evidence available for the consideration of any committee which might be appointed to draft the regulations. In 1901 a Departmental Committee of the Local Government Board, which had for two years been inquiring into the use of preservatives and colouring matter in food, recommended inter alia the prohibition of formaldehyde or copper salts in food, the limitation of boric acid to 0·25 per cent. in food, and the amount of salicylic acid not to exceed one grain per pound in solid food and one grain per pint in liquid food. There is also the Final Report of the Departmental Committee, 1924, which led to the introduction of the Public Health (Preservatives, etc., in Food) Regulations, 1925–27, which contained provisions limiting the use of preservatives to certain articles of food, prescribing the preservatives which could be used (sulphur dioxide and benzoic acid in specified amounts) and prohibiting the use of a number of metallic, vegetable and coal‐tar colouring matters. More recent still is the Report of the Departmental Committee appointed in 1933 to consider whether it was desirable that the law relating to the composition and description of articles of food should be altered so as to enable definitions or standards to be prescribed, or declarations of composition to be required for articles of food other than liquid milk, and if so to recommend what alterations of the law were required. As a food officer I was impressed on reading this report at the very wide field covered by the Committee in its search for evidence on the many aspects of the problem, and commend its perusal to all who are interested in the subject of food standards. Professional associations, traders' associations, associations of local authorities, scientists, doctors, public analysts, sanitary inspectors and trade representatives submitted their respective views. The report extends over several pages, but, briefly, the Committee were of opinion that it was not practicable to extend standards of definitions to all articles of food, that housewives would not benefit by a multitude of standards, definitions or declarations of composition, as in a large number of cases they were getting articles of the nature, substance and quality demanded, and that no standards or definitions should be laid down and no declaration of composition required without giving the manufacturers or other persons concerned the fullest opportunity of hearing the proposals and submitting their observations. The Committee also recommended that the contamination of articles of food by arsenic, lead, tin, or other impurities which may be contaminated in the process of collection or preparation should be treated as a special question. A further recommendation that specific claims made in advertisements should be deemed to be part of the package label has since been provided for in the Food and Drugs Act, 1938 (Section 6). In their evidence before the Departmental Committee in 1933, the Society of Public Analysts advocated the institution of a comprehensive system of standards and definitions, which would ultimately embrace all articles of food, and as this goes much further than the recommendation of the Committee, the views of public analysts on any new draft regulations will no doubt be awaited with considerable interest. In any case, their observations should be of considerable value when food standards are under consideration. Many suggestions for standards have emanated from commercial interests, and the Chief Medical Officer to the Ministry of Health, in his report for 1938, referring to these suggestions, stated “there is often discernible a desire to stifle competition, and that frequently the grade or qualities to which objection is taken are sound, wholesome articles of food, the suppression of which would be a distinct loss to the poorer class of consumers. New standards should therefore apply to all grades and not only to the higher‐grade articles. In fact, if any preference is to be shown it should be in respect of the cheaper grades. Where there is doubt of the efficiency of applying a standard, the desire should rest not on whether it will create difficulties in manufacture, although, of course, this aspect must be considered, but whether it is in the public interest that a standard should be laid down.” The Chief Medical Officer is to be commended for this timely warning, and it should be borne in mind by those drafting new regulations. It should be ensured that public welfare and not commercial interests should receive first consideration in a matter of this kind. There are many articles of food to which standards of composition are already applicable, including butter, margarine, condensed milk, dried milk, whisky, spirits, etc. There are also presumptive standards for milk and skimmed milk, and semi‐official standards for jam, vinegar and shredded suet. I am aware that under emergency powers the Ministry of Food have introduced standards for numerous articles of food, but these have been primarily introduced in connection with food rationing and other difficulties in connection with war‐time control of the principal foodstuffs. They are no doubt related to the availability of supplies of the various constituents, and therefore subject to alteration from lime to time, as instanced by the reduction in the percentage of meat to be contained in sausages. Except, therefore, as an experiment, these standards cannot be regarded as a satisfactory system, and will probably be revoked immediately the national situation justifies such a course being taken. We should not, therefore, be unduly influenced by these war‐time standards. Despite the desire of public analysis and food officers to have legal standards for all articles of food, it may be found impracticable to fix standards of composition for such articles as meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc., as they are prepared with the minimum of handling and are less likely to be adulterated. There are, however, many articles of food for which at present there are no legal standards as to their nature, substance or quality, and to which such standards might easily be made applicable, such as meat‐paste or fish‐paste, for which you have no guarantee of the percentage of meat or fish present. Just before the war there was a popular demand for cheese‐spreads, some of which contained up to 35 per cent. fat, but in the absence of legal standards varieties of cheese‐spreads may contain much less fat. There is no legal standard for cheese, with the result that whether it is made from skim milk or new milk it may still be sold as cheese. Mixtures of cocoa with starch and sugar may be sold as cocoa, if the fact that they are mixtures (without disclosing the percentage of cocoa) is disclosed on the label. In America milk chocolate must contain a minimum of 12 per cent. milk solids, but there is no such standard in this country. Although there is a bacteriological standard for ice‐cream in the Isle of Man, to the effect that when examined within twenty‐four hours of sale it shall not contain more than one hundred thousand bacteria per cubic centimetre, and no Baccilus coli in one‐tenth of a cubic centimetre, there is no such standard in this country. It has been suggested that ice‐cream should be made from milk, cream and sugar, with or without eggs, and contain a minimum of 8 per cent. of milk fat. An article sold as honey should be solely the product of the honey bee and not a chemically prepared substance. The latter might be designated as “artificial honey,” and labelled accordingly. Fruit juices should be what the name implies, and be manufactured and sold in compliance with statutory requirements. There should be standards for cordials, squashes, jams and preserves. Meat extracts should be made from good muscle fibre and its total creatine content slated on the label. If low‐grade meat is used, including offal, the fact should be disclosed on the label. With regard to statutory declarations on labels, the printing should be of such size that it is easily legible. It should neither be impossible nor impracticable to introduce legal standards for custard powders, baking powders, blancmange powders, pudding mixtures, cake mixtures, and many other foodstuffs which are ordinarily consumed by the public, not forgetting sweets and confectionery, wines and cocktails, milk shakes, and soft drinks. The ramp which went on during 1940–42 in connection with the sale of “food substitutes” was a striking example of the need for statutory standards of composition. It is often contended that if housewives only purchased goods prepared by reputable firms they would receive satisfaction, and while to a large extent this may be true, the fact remains that inferior articles still find their way into shops. There is, of course, the possibility that shopkeepers may be tempted by the offer of a larger margin of profit on goods supplied by firms of less repute. Some shopkeepers even fail to obtain a warranty that the goods supplied to them conform to the requirements of the Food and Drugs Act and Regulations. It is not sufficient for the Departmental Committee to state “that in a large number of cases housewives get articles of the nature, substance and quality demanded,” and leave it at that. An effort should be made to apply standards to every article of food to which the application of such standards is possible. Housewives should no longer be tempted or misled by catch advertisements, attractive labels or wrappings, or the inducement of free gifts. To give some idea of the need for a wider application of standards, a few cases dealt with during the past three years, some of which came under my own personal investigation, are set out below, with the Public Analyst's comments: 1.—Egg substitute.—Contained no true substitute for eggs; consisted of a solution of synthetic gum, probably made by treating cotton with some chemical; containing only 3·8 per cent. solid matter, the rest being water; had no food value.

A quantitative theoretical model is proposed to measure how productivity performance can be affected by strategic decisions related to specific competitive priorities.

This study proposes the Primary Transformation Model (PTM) and an equation to measure cause-and-effect relationships between productivity and competitive priorities.

The interdependence between productivity and competitive priorities was studied using the PTM and the proposed model indicates that strategies that improve external performance also impact internal productivity. It was also observed that the compatibility between competitive priorities depends on the initial manufacturing conditions and the implementation method adopted.

The proposed model is theoretical and, as such, is an abstraction of reality and does not consider all possible aspects. It consists of a novel approach that still requires further empirical testing. The PTM provides insights about the trade-offs between productivity and strategic objectives, as well, contributes to the ongoing research on manufacturing strategy and can be further developed in future studies.

The main practical implication is to allow companies to relate their strategic decisions to their productivity performance.

This research also contributes to societal issues by enabling firms to better align strategic objectives and operations, which ultimately allows offering products more suited to the needs of customers, thus making better use of the required resources and favoring economic growth.

The model proposed allows objective assessment of actions aiming at operational efficiency and effectiveness, in addition to providing insights into cause-and-effect relationships between productivity and competitive priorities. The model can also be used in empirical investigations on manufacturing strategy.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).