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The aim of this paper is to modify the shape of utility functions traditionally used in expected utility theory (EUT) to derive optimal retirement saving decisions. Inspired by current reference point based approaches, the authors argue that utility functions with jumps or kinks at certain threshold points might very well be rational.

The authors suggest an alternative to typical utility functions used in EUT, to be applied in the context of retirement saving decisions. The authors argue that certain elements that are used to model biases in behavioral models should–in the context of optimal retirement saving decisions–be considered “rational” and hence be included in a normative setting as well. The authors compare the optimal asset allocation derived under such utility functions with results under traditional power utility.

The authors find that the considered threshold levels can have a significant impact on the optimal investment decision for some individuals. In particular, the authors show that a much riskier investment than under EUT can become optimal if some level of income is secured by a social security and a significant portion of the distribution of terminal wealth lies below this level.

Contrary to previous work, this model is especially designed to assess the question of optimal product choice/asset allocation in the specific setting of retirement planning and from a normative point of view. In this regard, the authors first motivate the use of several thresholds and then apply this approach in a capital market model with stochastic stocks and stochastic interest rates to two illustrative investment alternatives.

This study aims to investigate the impact of mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending legislation on the earnings management strategies of firms.

The authors use panel data regression models to analyze the data for this study. This study covers the post-legislation period, which spans over five years from the financial year ending March 2015 to the financial year ending March 2019.

The results show that firms manipulate accounting measures to avoid breaching the cut-off criteria for mandatory CSR. In particular, the results show that firms operating around the operating revenue threshold misclassify operating revenue as non-operating revenue. In contrast, firms operating around the net worth and net profit thresholds do downward real and accrual earnings management. These results are consistent with several robustness measures.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the impact of mandatory CSR spending on earnings management.

To introduce to the special issues on threshold concepts in business education.

Provides an overview of the various papers comprising this special issue.

There are no specific findings in this paper as its purpose is to introduce the selected papers in this special issue.

Editorial.

This paper aims to explore a new wavelet adaptive threshold de-noising method to resolve the shortcomings of wavelet hard-threshold method and wavelet soft-threshold method, which are usually used in gear fault diagnosis.

A new threshold function and a new determined method of threshold for each layer are proposed. The principle and the implementation of the algorithm are given. The simulated signal and the measured gear fault signal are analyzed, and the obtained results are compared with those from wavelet soft-threshold method, wavelet hard-threshold method and wavelet modulus maximum method.

The presented wavelet adaptive threshold method overcomes the defects of the traditional wavelet threshold method, and it can effectively eliminate the noise hidden in the gear fault signal at different decomposition scales. It provides more accurate information for the further fault diagnosis.

A new threshold function is adopted and the multi-resolution unbiased risk estimation is used to determine the adaptive threshold, which overcomes the defect of the traditional wavelet method.

The study examines whether the growth effect of government spending is contingent on the level of institutional environment prevalent in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The study adopts the more refined and more appropriate dynamic threshold panel by Seo and Shin (2016) and made applicable be Seo et al. (2019). The technique models a nonlinear asymmetric dynamics and cross-sectional heterogeneity simultaneously in a dynamic threshold panel data framework.

The results show that there is a threshold effect in the government spending-growth relationship. Specifically, the authors found that the impact of government spending on economic growth is positive and statistically significant only above a certain threshold level of institutional development. Below that threshold, the effect of government spending on growth is insignificant and negative at best. The findings suggest that government spending-growth nexus is contingent on the level of Institutional quality.

Unlike previous studies that adopt the linear interaction model which pre-impose a priori conditional restrictions, this study adopts the dynamic threshold panel framework which allows the lagged dependent variable and endogenous covariates.

In a wide variety of settings, individuals target round-numbered thresholds, relaxing effort when they are out of reach. This paper aims to investigate whether this phenomenon occurs in nonprofits as well.

The paper empirically examines nonprofits’ propensity to cut expenses relative to the attainability of the zero-profit threshold.

This paper finds nonprofit firms are more likely to cut expenses when faced with small expected losses than with larger losses, and this pattern varies predictably with incentives to reach the zero-profit threshold.

This suggests managers are motivated by desire to reach the zero-profit threshold rather than to improve firms’ economic situations, as the propensity to cut expenses is lower when the threshold is out of reach.

Additionally, the results suggest that even the lack of explicit profit motive may not quell earnings management behavior.

These results begin to close the gap in our understanding of expense management in nonprofit firms, showing how operating expenses can be used to manage earnings.

A major key success factor regarding proficient Bayes threshold denoising refers to noise variance estimation. This paper focuses on assessing different noise variance estimations in three Bayes threshold models on two different characteristic brain lesions/tumor magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs).

Here, three Bayes threshold denoising models based on different noise variance estimations under the stationary wavelet transforms (SWT) domain are mainly assessed, compared to state-of-the-art non-local means (NLMs). Each of those three models, namely D1, GB and DR models, respectively, depends on the most detail wavelet subband at the first resolution level, on the entirely global detail subbands and on the detail subband in each direction/resolution. Explicit and implicit denoising performance are consecutively assessed by threshold denoising and segmentation identification results.

Implicit performance assessment points the first–second best accuracy, 0.9181 and 0.9048 Dice similarity coefficient (Dice), sequentially yielded by GB and DR; reliability is indicated by 45.66% Dice dropping of DR, compared against 53.38, 61.03 and 35.48% of D1 GB and NLMs, when increasing 0.2 to 0.9 noise level on brain lesions MRI. For brain tumor MRI under 0.2 noise level, it denotes the best accuracy of 0.9592 Dice, resulted by DR; however, 8.09% Dice dropping of DR, relative to 6.72%, 8.85 and 39.36% of D1, GB and NLMs is denoted. The lowest explicit and implicit denoising performances of NLMs are obviously pointed.

A future improvement of denoising performance possibly refers to creating a semi-supervised denoising conjunction model. Such model utilizes the denoised MRIs, resulted by DR and D1 thresholding model as uncorrupted image version along with the noisy MRIs, representing corrupted version ones during autoencoder training phase, to reconstruct the original clean image.

This paper should be of interest to readers in the areas of technologies of computing and information science, including data science and applications, computational health informatics, especially applied as a decision support tool for medical image processing.

In most cases, DR and D1 provide the first–second best implicit performances in terms of accuracy and reliability on both simulated, low-detail small-size region-of-interest (ROI) brain lesions and realistic, high-detail large-size ROI brain tumor MRIs.

This study aims to examine whether global gold futures returns volatilities and trading activities are threshold cointegrated.

This study considers 11 gold futures markets, including 3 developed futures markets and 8 developing futures markets. This study also analyzes futures trading activities for speculators and hedgers. This study uses a nonlinear threshold vector error correction model (TVECM) and a threshold Lagrange multiplier (LM) test proposed by Hansen and Seo (2002).

The findings show that global gold futures return volatilities (FRV) and trading activities are not always threshold cointegrated. Most developed futures markets exhibit threshold cointegrated of gold FRV and trading activities for speculators and hedgers, whereas some developing futures markets exhibit threshold cointegrated. It suggests that speculators and hedgers trading activity conveys valuable information about changes in market volatility dynamics. On the other hand, responses to error-correction effect among gold FRV and trading activities for speculators and hedgers are dramatically different for developed and developing gold futures markets, respectively, particular in the unusual regime.

Research results show that threshold cointegration between global gold FRV and trading activities matters but not always. Thus, threshold relations have improved the authors’ understanding of global gold futures price discovery process with a threshold. For research limitations, this study uses only near month futures contracts, as it contains more information but not using far month contracts.

The findings may have important trading implications with additional insights in a(n) (un)usual regime further regulation may be detrimental to the price responsiveness in futures markets if increased price volatility and trading volume are attributed to liquid and efficient markets.

The findings may have important policy implications with additional insights. For example, in a(n) (un)usual regime greater regulatory restrictions may be warranted to decrease market inefficiencies if increased price fluctuations are caused by increased trading volume. Policymakers could enhance futures trading liquidity or restrict speculating positions.

This study examines whether global gold futures returns volatilities and trading activities are threshold cointegrated by using a nonlinear TVECM. The authors detect that some global gold futures returns volatilities and trading activities are threshold cointegrated but some are not. Hence, the findings determine whether the volatility–volume threshold relation holds across countries and investigate the determinants of cross-country differences in different traders.

This chapter examines the case of threshold concepts, as an example of a theory being developed and applied within higher education research. It traces the origins and meaning of the term, reviews its application by higher education researchers and discusses the issues it raises and the critiques it has attracted. This case is of particular interest, as the idea of threshold concepts is little more than a decade old, yet in that time it has attracted considerable attention.

This chapter explores the potential of grounded theory research methods for eliciting threshold concepts. It begins with an overview of threshold concept theory, then reviews current methodological approaches, as well as challenges encountered, when researching threshold concepts. The discussion argues for the suitability of grounded theory for this purpose, using a specific case for illustration. Specific elements of the research design that strengthened the use of grounded theory in the exploration of threshold concepts are described. The case example used is of graduate students and practicing professionals’ learning experiences when acquiring expertise in the online environment. The case is used to demonstrate the grounded theory method’s efficacy for eliciting evidence of transformative learning experiences, leading to implications for improving curriculum design.