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This study analyses the influence of the recent economic downturn on earnings management (EM), as well as the manipulation of real activities through cash flow from operations (CFO), with a sample of Spanish listed firms from 2004 to 2009.

We find evidence that the recent economic downturn has changed the patterns of firms’ EM. On the one hand, the crisis influence higher earnings generation as indebtedness increase. On the other hand, results support the hypothesis of an opportunistic behaviour of managers with higher firm market valuation. They have incentives to reduce earnings during the recession and push earnings for the recovery phase of the business cycle.

The study finds also a significant relationship between EM and abnormal CFO generation. The downturn influences positive abnormal CFO generation with indebtedness, as well as negative abnormal CFO generation with firm size and market valuation. It has no significant influence through abnormal accruals on abnormal CFO generation.

Neoclassic economics is a thing of considerable beauty. It yet finds an increasing tendency on the part of those trained in its discipline to rebel from its neatly fitted abstractions and intriguing diagrams. The rebellion stems from two sources. Veblen's sweeping attacks upon its postulates¹⁶ shock its theoretical foundations. The rapid changes in the industrial and business world discredited it on another front by bringing into increasingly sharp relief the divergence between the institutional assumptions of the orthodox theory and the conditions actually obtaining. The giant corporation, overhead costs, and the necessity for maintenance of volume, industrial concentration, the trade association, a widening spread among income classes, advertising, the growing inability of the consumer to gauge quality, the resort to reorganization instead of the “going out of business” of the long-run analyses – what place could the orthodox theory give to these important characteristics of the existing business economy?

The rapid progress of neuroscience and the interdisciplinary collaboration between neuroscience and psychology have begun to provide valuable insights for understanding the dynamic and implicit nature of human motivation by identifying the in vivo neural mechanism of motivation. One of the fundamental questions in the field of the neuroscience of motivation is what neural mechanisms underlie the direction, intensity, and guidance of our motivation and subsequent actions. This prologue explains how neuroscience can contribute to the understanding of human motivation. To accomplish this purpose, we present what neuroscientific data look like, identify 13 key motivation-relevant brain structures, and introduce 3 key motivation-centric brain circuits – namely, the reward circuit, the value-based decision-making pathway, and the self-regulation/self-control network.

The paper published below was prepared by Taylor Ostrander for Frank Knight’s course, Economic Theory, Economics 301, during the Fall 1933 quarter.

The exponential growth in the number of visitors and the mass-tourism mobility patterns in natural areas are causing serious issues such as traffic congestion, crowding in car parks, pollution, high noise levels, and traffic accidents. In order to redress this situation, demand management policies that propose more sustainable transportation systems are crucial. In this chapter, the authors summarize extensive research carried out in Teide National Park (Canary Islands, Spain), the most visited national park in Spain, one of the most visited in the world, and a clear example of a natural area under pressure from mass tourism. The authors present the current situation of the natural site and three scientific contributions based on a survey combining revealed and stated preferences that analyzes visitor preferences with regard to the use of sustainable transportation systems. The first study analyzes visitors’ preferences regarding the implementation of a public bicycle-sharing system. The second study explores visitors’ willingness to pay to reduce the environmental impact of their visit and the potential implementation of a shuttle-bus service. The third study investigates the recreational economic value of the site. The chapter provides useful information for decision-makers who need to address problems associated with the unsustainable visitor mobility and reports results that can be extrapolated to other natural parks with similar characteristics and high inflow of tourists.

Innovation is a key driver of a firm’s ability to survive in the financial market. Previous studies typically consider a firm dead once its shares are delisted from the stock exchange. Despite its negative connotation, delisting may be a strategic decision and therefore be a positive outcome for the company. We study how a firm’s innovative activity, in terms of R&D investments and number of patents, shapes its survival profile, taking into account the heterogeneous nature of delistings. Using a sample of high-tech small and medium enterprises (SMEs) going public in Europe during 1998–2003, we find that more innovative firms, both in terms of patents and R&D investments, have a higher probability to be taken over. However, while firms with a rich portfolio of patents are less likely to voluntarily delist, higher R&D investments increase a firm’s likelihood of being delisted due to compliance failure.

Advances in artificial intelligence have ushered in new opportunities for marketers in the domain of content generation. We discuss approaches that have emerged to generate text and image content. Drawing on the customer equity framework, we then discuss the potential applications of automated content generation for customer acquisition, relationship development, and customer retention. We conclude by discussing important considerations that businesses must make prior to adopting automated content generation.