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The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical framework to answer the following question: What are the consequences of sunflower behavior as well as spread behavior for how asset-liability management is administrated in a life insurance company?

This paper takes into account the following: the chief executive officer (CEO) of a life insurance company confirms the board of directors’ belief – the preference of the like of higher return relative to the dislike of higher risk; the authors call such behavior sunflower management; the life insurance policyholder is entitled to a guaranteed interest rate and a participation percentage of the company’s investment surplus; and the authors examine the optimal insurer interest margin, i.e., the spread between the loan rate and the guaranteed rate.

Sunflower management translates into lower utility for the CEO and makes the CEO more prudent to risk-taking at an increased insurer interest margin for the provision of life insurance contracts. The effect of the guaranteed rate on the margin is ambiguous and depends on the level of guarantee itself. An increase in the participation level decreases the CEO’s loan risk-taking at an increased margin. It is shown that a trend toward higher return like of the board’s belief produces a corresponding trend toward the CEO’s decreasing risk-taking when the return like is revealed strongly. The results indicate that sunflower management as such is an important determinant in ensuring a safe insurance system.

This is the first paper to construct a contingent claim model to evaluate the expected value of the CEO’s utility function defined in terms of the equity returns and the equity risks of a life insurance company. The model explicitly considers CEO sunflower behavior, CEO spread behavior and the limited liability of shareholders.

The leaders’ perception about self and the opinion of the subordinates about them is crucial to understand why some leaders qualify for hate. Much has been discussed on the positive and ethical side of leadership. However, the research on the darker side of leadership needs more attention. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the factors along with their impact responsible for hate-for-leaders, a relatively scant area of leadership. This study may facilitate understanding why some leaders become subject to hate despite many efforts by the organization.

For exploring the different factors responsible for hate-for-leaders, a survey was conducted by developing a scale using the focus group, Delphi technique, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The results were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The factors responsible for qualifying the leaders for hate were identified. Moreover, the results indicated that the subordinate hate the leaders for his/her unacceptable behaviour/actions which they assume the leader has control over it and exhibited otherwise intentionally on targeted employees. Moreover, some undesirable behaviour of leaders is attributed to fundamental attribution errors i.e. situational factors.

A fully developed scale for assessing the hate-quotient for leaders is proposed. This research will facilitate the managers/leaders as to why some of the followers/employees hate them. This scale provides an opportunity for managers and leaders to introspect themselves for improved workplace relationships and not to encourage sunflower management that seeks to get submissive and aligned-thought employees around the leader.

The fact that the decisions taken by managers/leaders adversely affecting the employees are not always because of malice or wrong intentions but sometimes due to situational factors i.e. fundamental attribution error. Moreover, the scale act as a reference to evaluate the hate-for-leaders in the organizational context.

The purpose of this study is to review the capital budgeting literature over the past decade.

Specifically, over the years 2004–2013, we review works appearing in the major academic journals in accounting, finance, and management. Further, we review the specialized academic journals in management accounting. We examine the frequency of articles by journal and year published, the type of research method applied, and the topic area studied. We then review the research findings by topic area.

We find 110 articles appearing in the selected journals. While the articles increase in frequency, the research methods applied are predominantly analytical and archival in nature with relatively few experiments, case studies, or surveys. Some progress is observed for capital budgeting techniques and new methods for structuring uncertainty. The studies find that the size of capital budgets is about right for companies with high financial reporting quality, for liquid companies, during periods of normal cash flow, when the budget is financed by equity, for companies when they first go public or first go private. Tax rates and financial reporting methods for depreciation and tax expenses distort capital budgets. Organization structure and performance measurement can distort capital budgeting. Individual differences, especially optimism and honesty, can influence capital budgeting decisions.

This review is limited to the major journals in accounting, finance, and management; and the specialized journals in management accounting. There is much research to be done on capital budgeting, especially case studies of actual practice and experiments related to individual and group decision processes.

Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The new chief executive of a company which owned a string of local newspapers brought in a consultant to “streamline” the organization and “to make efficiencies” – in other words to cut costs. If his brief had been to ensure the long‐term viability of the business, he would have gone about it in a totally different way. Cutting costs is easy; ensuring those cuts don't irreparably damage the company is the hard part.

Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

This research explores project manager (PM) behavior in their professional virtual communities (PVCs), using social identity theory as a theoretical foundation. The purpose is to examine the extent to which PMs seek information on key topics in the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (PMBoK).

A text data analytics methodology that uses quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques is followed. The research method reveals relationships in language-based data gathered from six project management forums and blogs.

Information related to all the PMBoK topics is sought in the project management virtual communities. People management topics account for a dominant portion of interactions. The findings enhance social identification theorizing for the PM role. From a practical standpoint, the findings shed light on focal areas for greater emphasis in PM PVCs.

Our people management finding constructively replicates existing findings via a large, global sample and strengthens calls for increased focus on people management matters in project management. As a result, we call for increased scholarly attention to people management in project management. Finally, we encourage pursuit of several research questions to enhance knowledge of PM information-seeking behavior.

Despite the widespread study and application of public-private partnerships (PPPs) since the 1980s, the field lacks a universally accepted definition that captures the concept's complexity. This study aims to offer a definition and foster a more substantive and comprehensive discourse on PPPs to improve communication and understanding between academics and practitioners from diverse disciplines and legislative backgrounds.

Grounded in the family-resemblance concept proposed by German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, this study conducts a comprehensive literature review to identify core and non-core elements frequently cited in PPP descriptions. The authors used these findings to develop the PPP sunflower model as a structured framework for defining PPPs.

The analysis elucidates six core elements consistently present in PPP descriptions: clarity of roles and responsibilities, appropriate risk allocation and sharing, injection of expertise and resources, cooperation and teamwork, a bundle of services, and long-term contracts. Coupled with identified non-core elements, these core components comprise the PPP sunflower model, a structured framework for defining PPPs that accommodates their multi-faceted nature.

The PPP sunflower model distinguishes itself as a unique contribution to the PPP literature. It offers a rigorous theoretical framework that can elucidate the complexity of PPPs for various stakeholders. The model serves as a practical tool for evaluating the authenticity and viability of PPP projects. The study's novelty lies in its adoption of the family-resemblance concept, thereby providing a comprehensive, multi-dimensional framework that enhances the understanding of PPPs across different disciplines and legislative contexts.

This research is devoted to studying the dynamics of the commodity structure of the world edible oils market in 2001–2021, with subsequent identification of the role and importance of export deliveries of Russian products in the formation of global mechanisms of supply and demand in the segment.

In the process of writing the chapter, the author used functional and mathematical analysis, statistical and computational-constructive methods, and customs statistics data from reputable international organisations and national statistical bodies. Comparing the obtained results with relevant scientific studies provides a high level of reliability of the results of this research.

Russia is currently the world's second-largest sunflower oil producer. In the near future, the country has significant potential to become the largest supplier of this product, which can significantly contribute to stabilising supply in the global edible oil market.

Based on the analysis of the dynamics of change in the statistics, it is substantiated that as a result of the implementation of a balanced state policy, in two decades, Russia managed to overcome a large-scale crisis in agro-industrial production, significantly reduced its dependence on imports of oil and fat products and is currently one of the world's leading producers of sunflower oil, which allows it to play an important role in shaping supply on the world market of oil and fat products.

The year 2010 was coming to a close, and Kapil, Marketing Manager of GEF India Private Limited (GEF), was thinking about the future. He had drafted a brief (see Exhibit 1) on conducting market research to assess the health of the brand Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil, which GEF had launched in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in February of that year.1 Kapil was very happy to note that the brand had achieved good sales, in fact, significantly higher sales than the target set for the launch. This had been achieved thanks to a well-thought-out launch plan that had included considerably more above the line (ATL) marketing expenditure than any of the competing brands in the market. He was interested in finding out whether and where exactly the brand had taken root in the minds of consumers. Another important purpose of the proposed market research was to assess the effectiveness of the launch plan. Above all, he felt it would provide valuable insights when he set out to prepare a marketing plan for the coming year.

The study examined rural police culture in one Kansas police agency.

This study used a qualitative ethnographic approach using in-depth interviews and non-participant observations to construct and interpret the culture of rural police through the lens of officers working in one rural police agency.

Five themes were found that described the complexities rural police officers face at this research site, including the law being at the center of officers’ actions, the nature of crime, officers serving as jack of all trades, community relationships and enforcement of crimes by teenagers, and how outside pressures from the community and increased concern for citizens' safety affect officers' daily lived experiences.

There is a dearth of scholarly literature addressing rural and small-town policing. This study is the first known qualitative study to be conducted on rural Kansas police, allowing a snapshot of the workings of rural Kansas police.

The purpose of this paper is to study the resilience and elastic properties of short pastry with the meals of soy, sunflower and milk thistle.

Recent studies in the emerging food technologies of short pastry with use of meals were considered. Their focus on the improvement of the functional peculiarities of short pastry and benefits for people were the defining characteristics of the studies.

Model food compositions have been developed from soybean meal, sunflower meal and milk thistle for adding them to semi-finished short pastry products. The technology of short pastry confectionery made from short pastry with oilseed meal has been scientifically substantiated and developed. The chemical composition of shortbread cookies with the use of oilseed meal was calculated. The developed technology increased protein content by 2.5 times, cellulose content – by six times, significantly increased mineralization in the developed confectionery products. The content of calcium increased by 172.9 mg, selenium – by 13.06 mcg, iodine – by 2.76 mcg and vitamin E by 2.4 mg.

The developed technology of short pastry with a model composition of the meal can be used in practice. The use of a meal composition is a promising direction to improve the brittleness of short pastry products. The developed pastry products made from short pastry with added meal can be introduced into catering establishments as functional products with improved biological value.

Developed pastry products can be used as functional products with improved biological value, which is important for people’s health and has positive effects on the human body.

The use of meals of soy, sunflower and milk thistle in short pastry increases its nutritional and biological value, which improves the impact on the human body. The developed pastry products can be introduced as functional products with improved biological value, which is important for the improvement of people’s health in different countries of the world.