He who pays the piper calls the tune? Setting the stage for an informed discourse on third-party funding of academic business research

Review of Managerial Science - Third-party funding of academic research has grown rapidly in its scope and impact. However, several forces demand greater attention to potential opportunities,...     

The effect of accounting standards on Big Bath behavior

This paper investigates the influence of accounting standards on systematic earnings understatement. To isolate the effect of reporting regulations from those of other institutional drivers of earnings management, Holthausen (2003) proposes analyzing reporting practices in a country undergoing a transition in accounting standards. We respond to this call by analyzing earnings management practices of large German-listed companies before and after their transitions from German GAAP to IFRS. Specifically, we focus on Big Bath behavior following Chief Financial Officer turnovers between 1999 and 2006. Our findings provide evidence of the effect of accounting standards on the existence of this particular earnings understatement pattern. However, while we detect Big Bath behavior for our sample of German GAAP firms, we find no such indication for those firms reporting under IFRS. Controlling for alternative explanations such as self-selection bias does not change our findings. We conclude that accounting standards seem to have a considerable influence on earnings management behavior, independent of managers’ and auditors’ incentives.     

Estimation of geodesic tortuosity and constrictivity in stationary random closed sets

We investigate the problem of estimating geodesic tortuosity and constrictivity as two structural characteristics of stationary random closed sets. They are of central importance for the analysis of effective transport properties in porous or composite materials. Loosely speaking, geodesic tortuosity measures the windedness of paths, whereas the notion of constrictivity captures the appearance of bottlenecks resulting from narrow passages within a given materials phase. We first provide mathematically precise definitions of these quantities and introduce appropriate estimators. Then, we show strong consistency of these estimators for unboundedly growing sampling windows. In order to apply our estimators to real data sets, the extent of edge effects needs to be controlled. This is illustrated using a model for a multiphase material that is incorporated in solid oxide fuel cells.     

Dimensions of Social Stratification and Their Relation to Mortality: A Comparison Across Gender and Life Course Periods in Finland

Social Indicators Research - Differences in mortality between groups with different socioeconomic positions (SEP) are well-established, but the relative contribution of different SEP measures is...     

Integrative Entrepreneurship-Forschung — Identifikation von Schnittstellen zwischen soziologischer und ökonomischer Perspektive

In this paper three prominent discourses of Entrepreneurship Research — 1) the Entrepreneur as an actor in society, 2) the embeddedness of the research object of Entrepreneurship Research and 3) the determinants of entrepreneurship processes — are analyzed for possible interfaces between a sociological and economical perspective. This analyses results in a systemized portfolio of research topics, which seem to be especially attractive for such an integrative research approach. The results of a survey of 105 entrepreneurship researchers in the German speaking world underpin the relevance of the identified interfaces and allow for their priorization. That way we contribute to an integration of this field as the presented set of identified interfaces, in a first step, provides a feasible agenda for interdisciplinary (empirical) follow-up research whose results — in a second step — can build elements of an integrative concept of Entrepreneurship Research.     

Can formula apportionment really prevent multinational enterprises from profit shifting? The role of asset valuation,intragroup debt,and leases

The European Commission has been supporting a transition from a system of separate accounting to formula apportionment. After its 2011 draft directive was rejected by the Council, the Commission presented two new draft directives in October 2016, one stipulating rules for a common tax base and another the terms for consolidation and apportionment. The aspired system of unitary taxation is considered more resistant to profit shifting and assumed to reduce compliance costs. However, there are also doubts about the extent, to which such a system will eradicate tax-planning activities of MNEs. Other concerns have arisen about the practical issue of enforcing uniform rules for asset valuation throughout the member states. We use a dynamic model of tax accounting based on neoclassical investment theory and effective tax rates to determine to what extent formula apportionment mitigates the efficiency of typical profit-shifting strategies. We focus on the roles of transfer pricing and intragroup debt financing (through loans and leases) under both separate accounting and formula apportionment. We also take into account a possible leeway for inconsistent valuation. Our results show that instead of eliminating tax planning strategies, the proposed system might simply induce a shift from manipulating reported profits to influencing the apportionment key. Inside the European Union, the CCCTB may be able to render thin capitalisation rules and transfer pricing documentation redundant. However, formula apportionment invites for new forms of tax planning. It is therefore essential to give credit to these new kinds of tax incentives when implementing a system of unitary taxation.     

Much Ado About Nothing? Macro-Prudential Ideas and the Post-Crisis Regulation of Shadow Banking

Post-crisis, macro-prudential ideas have challenged the epistemic authority of private risk management technologies, declaring them to be pro-cyclical contributors to systemic risk. This discursive challenge has been most critical of the shadow banking system, where private risk management instruments are central. This challenge, however, has not been translated into regulatory tools which reflect these convictions. This paper studies this process of discursive challenge to (failed) regulatory intervention for the case of the repo-market, the heart of the current shadow banking system. It traces regulatory efforts on the global and EU level from regulatory statements to (lack of) action, documenting both the persistent articulation of macro-prudential ideas challenging private risk-management systems and timid to no regulatory intervention. It links this hiatus to international coordination problems, the need for macro-prudential action to span regulatory communities, involving banking and financial market authorities and disagreements between micro- and macro-prudentially oriented regulators. The lack of evidence and the difficulty to generate it are identified as major impediments for regulatory consensus, further aggravated by ambiguities about the goals of anti-cyclical regulation. Beyond governance problems and the persistent appeal of private risk-management systems, the paper thus points to difficulties operationalizing macro-prudential ideas as a major explanatory factor.     

Zur Exploration statistisch gut angepasster Latent-Class-Modelle durch Homogenitätsanalyse

With this article, an attempt is made to combine both confirmatory and exploratory analysis. It is argued that confirmatory and exploratory approaches have to complement one another. As an example for confirmation latent-class-models are estimated for 3 variables which are supposed to measure a latent dimension “attitudes towards integration — segregation of the mentally ill”. Employing a 3-, and a 4-class solution it can be shown that exclusively looking on the model fit is not sufficient. Since both models fit equally well, both the membership-probabilities and the category-probabilities for each class are inspected. By means of homogeneity-analysis within the latent classes, the interpretation of deviations from the model assumptions is facilitated considerably. It is shown that very special and rare responsepattern may question a straightforward interpretation of a simple parsimonious model.     

The role of events in ICT adoption: same-sex marriage and Twitter

ICT adoption is predominantly considered as a process conditioned by social structures, social situations of adopters, and attributes and features of technologies. What is often overlooked are the cultural forces that shape adoption experiences and processes. This paper focuses on events and event narratives as vehicles through which the efficacy of culture unfolds in technological change processes. Cultural sociology has shown how influential events can be for forming public opinions and facilitating collective action. This article considers the power of one event on a much smaller scale: the passage of same-sex marriage (SSM) law in New York in June 2011 was not only significant for marriage equality in the US but also for the operating logic of the news ecosystem in which the political decision was made ? the state house in Albany. For the journalists who covered this event on the ground, the SSM decision was the catalyst to fully embrace Twitter. Years later, the event still served as an exemplar for the potentials of Twitter and as a basis of legitimacy of associated tweeting practices reporters incorporated. This contribution is based on ethnographic research at the state house in Albany, analysis of tweets and legacy news coverage published during that period, and in-depth interviews with reporters.     

‘I Want to Persuade You!’ – Investigating the effectiveness of explicit persuasion concerning attributes of the communicator and the marketing campaign

In explicit persuasion, the communicator states explicitly a desire to persuade the consumer. By referring to an attributional approach, social engagement was simultaneously explored as a beneficial communicator attribute, while cause-related marketing (CRM) was addressed as a boundary condition. In an experiment, we varied the persuasion strategy (explicit vs. implicit), the communicator’s prior experience with social engagement (yes vs. no), and the specific marketing strategy (CRM vs. non-charity marketing). As expected, in the non-charity marketing condition, explicit (vs. implicit) persuasion was more effective when the communicator had prior experience in social engagement. In the CRM condition, explicit (vs. implicit) persuasion was less effective when the communicator had prior experience in social engagement; when no prior experience was reported, persuasiveness increased.