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1 – 8 of 8This paper aims to examine how and why finance is represented in cultural products. Focussing on an illustration by Norman Rockwell for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how and why finance is represented in cultural products. Focussing on an illustration by Norman Rockwell for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post, this analysis suggests that financialization is represented through the technique of visually incongruent humour. Humour relays the cultural value of the separation of work and play, and financialization is a tool to make sense of play as work. Addressing why certain financial representations are produced highlights the influence of finance in determining how and what messages about financialization are made public. This analysis of a single illustration suggests a need for further research into comparative and contextual studies of culture and finance.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is a qualitative analysis of The Expense Account (1957), a cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post.
Findings
In analysing the visually incongruent humour of the illustration, the cultural value of the separation of work and play is muddied by the lack of supervision and undefined organizational space. Freedom of travel and lack of managerial presence suggest that travelling salesmen face anxiety and uncertainty in having to account for their fun activities as work. Accounting is one tool of financialization used to interpret play as work by employees. This illustration was produced in a for-profit context and was therefore influenced by the financial decisions of magazine editors and customers.
Practical implications
Interdisciplinary qualitative analysis of finance and humorous popular cultural images suggests that accounting is a financial tool for making sense of play as work outside fixed organizational spaces. Additional support is given for studying popular culture and finance together, as popular culture is produced within a financial system in which financial decisions determine humorous representations of financialization.
Originality/value
This paper adopts a financial perspective in examining a Norman Rockwell illustration and makes the case for examining how representations of financialization are made by humour and financial influence.
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Kevin Alvarez and Vladik Kreinovich
The current pandemic is difficult to model – and thus difficult to control. In contrast to the previous epidemics, whose dynamics were smooth and well described by the existing…
Abstract
Purpose
The current pandemic is difficult to model – and thus difficult to control. In contrast to the previous epidemics, whose dynamics were smooth and well described by the existing models, the statistics of the current pandemic are highly oscillating. The purpose of this paper is to explain these oscillations and to see how this explanation can be used to fight the epidemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use an analogy with economic systems.
Findings
The authors show that these oscillations can be explained if we take into account the disease’s long incubation period – as a result of which our control measures are determined by outdated data, showing number of infected people two weeks ago. To better control the pandemic, the authors propose to use the experience of economics, where also the effect of different measures can be observed only after some time. In the past, this led to wild oscillations of the economy, with rapid growth periods followed by devastating crises. In time, economists learned how to smooth the cycles and thus to drastically decrease the corresponding negative effects. The authors hope that this experience can help fight the pandemic.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first explanation of the highly oscillatory nature of this epidemic’s dynamics.
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The purpose is to assess the impact of online platforms on the sex industry, focusing specifically on direct sex work, and evaluate what approaches to platform regulation is…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to assess the impact of online platforms on the sex industry, focusing specifically on direct sex work, and evaluate what approaches to platform regulation is likely to align with the interests of sex workers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a review of interdisciplinary conceptual and empirical literature on sex work combined with analysis of key issues using a transaction cost framework.
Findings
Online platforms generally make sex work safer. Regulation aimed at preventing platforms from serving sex workers is likely to harm their welfare.
Research limitations/implications
Regulation of online platforms should take great care to differentiate coercive sex from consensual sex work, and allow sex workers to experiment with governance mechanisms provided by entrepreneurs.
Originality/value
The paper demonstrates how a transactions costs approach to market behaviour as applied to personal services like ridesharing can also shed light on the challenges that sex workers face, partly as a result of criminalisation, and the dangers of over-regulation.
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Looks at the long recession the Japanese economy suffered in the 1990s and its ramifications on the employment situation in Japanese corporations. Describes, in general, the…
Abstract
Looks at the long recession the Japanese economy suffered in the 1990s and its ramifications on the employment situation in Japanese corporations. Describes, in general, the current trends in human resource management in corporate Japan which have long‐term implications for management development. In particular, focuses its attention on those white‐collar employees in older age groups who find themselves “trapped” in a “career plateau”. Sees their plight as part of the necessary historic process in a move towards a new corporate society in Japan.
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Nodirbek Bakhromzhon Ugli Anvarjonov, Ki-Hyun Um, DeYu Zhong and Eun-Kyu Shine
The principal research objective entails examining the nexus between green supplier selection and green performance while scrutinizing the moderating role of governance…
Abstract
Purpose
The principal research objective entails examining the nexus between green supplier selection and green performance while scrutinizing the moderating role of governance mechanisms, specifically process control and outcome control, in shaping this association.
Design/methodology/approach
To assess our hypotheses, this study obtained data from Chinese manufacturing sectors and utilized regression analysis on a dataset consisting of 295 samples.
Findings
This study enriches the sustainable supply chain management literature by emphasizing the influence of green supplier selection on a firm’s green performance and the moderating effects of outcome and process control, offering practical insights for industry professionals.
Originality/value
This study enriches the sustainable supply chain management literature by emphasizing the influence of supplier selection on a firm’s environmental performance and the moderating effects of outcome and process control, offering practical insights for industry professionals.
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This paper aims to argue that enterprise culture is producing negative effects. Companies and major accountancy firms are increasingly willing to increase their profits through…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to argue that enterprise culture is producing negative effects. Companies and major accountancy firms are increasingly willing to increase their profits through indulgence in price fixing, tax avoidance/evasion, bribery, corruption, money laundering and practices that show scant regard for social norms and even laws.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper locates business behaviour within the broader dynamics of capitalism to argue that hunger for higher profits at almost any cost is not constrained by rules, laws and even periodic regulatory action.
Findings
The paper uses publicly available evidence to show that accountancy firms are engaged in anti‐social behaviour. Evidence is provided to show that in pursuit of higher profits firms have operated cartels, engaged in tax avoidance/evasion, bribery, corruption and money laundering.
Practical implications
The paper seeks to bring the anti‐social activities of accountancy firms under scrutiny and thus extend possibilities of research in social responsibility, ethics, accountability, claims of professionalism, social disorder and crime.
Originality/value
It is rare for accounting scholars to examine predatory practices of accounting firms. It shows that predatory practices affect a variety of arenas and stakeholders.
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Despite the vast literature on privatization, the relationship between change of ownership and performance is not clear. The purpose of this paper is to understand why divergences…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the vast literature on privatization, the relationship between change of ownership and performance is not clear. The purpose of this paper is to understand why divergences are found between the empirical results of papers analyzed.
Design/methodology/approach
The author applies a meta-analysis to a sample of 60 empirical studies that analyze the performance of privatized companies. The author checks whether different results on performance can be explained by the method of privatization and the level of development of the country of privatized companies.
Findings
The findings indicate that companies privatized by public offerings obtain a better performance than companies privatized using other methods, such as private sale or voucher privatization, and do not support the common-place assumption that privatization in developing countries does not improve financial performance.
Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on privatization because it adds new empirical evidence about the privatization programs and it first applies a meta-analysis to a sample about privatization on state-owned companies. The author discusses theoretical and managerial implications and offers suggestions for future research on privatization.
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Bernice Ibiricu and Marja Leena van der Made
This paper aims to provide a framework for a code of ethics related to digital and leading edge technologies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a framework for a code of ethics related to digital and leading edge technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed ethical framework is anchored in data protection legislation, and results from a combination of case studies, observed user behaviour and decision-making processes.
Findings
A concise and user-friendly ethical framework ensures the embedded code of conduct is respected and observed by all employees concerned.
Originality/value
An ethical framework aligned with EU data protection legislation is required.
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