Incorporating cash flow analysis with traditional analysis for evaluating casino financial stability

Abstract

The rapid growth and greater competition among casinos has resulted in a number of firms being financially impaired while others are being forced into mergers and consolidations. Many US gaming regulators have adopted regulations for monitoring the financial stability of casino properties. These regulators typically use financial statement analysis tools for measuring the financial stability of the gaming properties. This has traditionally consisted of measures derived from the income statement and balance sheet while ignoring the statement of cash flows. At this time, there is little information on how to read the statement of cash flow, let alone how to analyze this statement. While prior studies have been mixed on the informational content of cash flow information, they conclude that cash flow information does help explain many of the changes in the balance sheet and income statement and thus helps in the understanding of changes that have taken place in a corporation. This type of information should lead to a better understanding of the financial stability of gaming properties. The use of cash flow ratios along with the traditional ratios should provide additional assurances about the liquidity and solvency of gaming corporations.     

Negative implications for the inclusion of citizenship performance in ratings

Although citizenship performance has been deemed important to organizational effectiveness, potential negative consequences related to including these behaviours in assessments of performance have received far less attention. Furthermore, although numerous researchers have demonstrated that performance ratings include task and citizenship performance, none have specifically examined the potential negative implications this has for performance ratings, employees, and organizations. This article conceptually explores the implications of including citizenship performance in formal ratings of performance. Specifically, the negative implications of including citizenship performance in the formal performance appraisal process are explored in terms of the consequences for the performance rating, including inaccurate appraisals; effects on employees, including reactions to the procedure; potential organizational outcomes, including performance and competitive advantage concerns; potential international and legal considerations.     

Maternal Health Policy and the Politics of Scale in Mexico

Since 1987, international organizations have accorded greaterattention to the problem of maternal mortality, particularlywith the inclusion of its reduction in the Millennium DevelopmentGoals. This article examines maternal health policies in Mexico,focusing on interactions between the international, national,and local scales and considering the case of local projectsin two states, Chiapas and Guerrero. Although the discourseof maternal health expressed at the international level hasfacilitated the creation of networks dedicated to maternal health,the restructuring of health services in Mexico and the rescalingof their provision have often conflicted with the realizationof this goal. The impact of decentralizing health services hasdiffered according to (a) the timing and nature of decentralization;(b) the number and expertise of nongovernmental organizations(NGOs) working on maternal health issues, and the connectionsbetween these NGOs and international networks; and (c) the responsivenessof the state governments to maternal health issues.     

Toward an Agenda of Radical Organizing: Introduction to the Special Issue*

Ce document présente et contextualise la collection d'articles du numéro spécial sur les crises organisationnelles. En contradiction avec les notions ayant cours sur les crises organisationnelles comme changement qui menace l'existence, la croissance ou le rendement d'une organisation, le terme est ici défini comme l'existence géné-rale des processus organisationnels qui reproduisent de façon routi-nière les pratiques ethnocentriques, à caractère sexuel, et anti-humaines recréant continuellement des environnements organisationnels comme des sites (socio) psychologiquement préjudiciables de l'interaction humaine. Soulignant la persistance des réalités organisationnelles et l'absence relative de theories alternatives de l'organisation, l'article trace les contours d'une théorie radicale de l'organisation. This paper introduces and contextualises the collection of papers that constitute the special issue on organizational crisis. In contradiction to mainstream notions of organizational crisis as a change that threatens the existence, growth or profitability of an organization, the term is here defined as the widespread existence of organizational processes that routinely reproduce ethnocentric, gendered, and other anti-human practices that continually recreate organizational environments as (social) psychologically damaging sites of human interaction. Pointing to the persistence of organizational realities and the relative absence of alternative theories of organizing, the paper outlines the contours of a radical theory of organization.     

Ageing in the United States at the end of the century

"The belief that America is a ?young' nation is widely held by many individuals in the United States. Historically, individualism, self-reliance, and an orientation towards youth have been cherished values reflecting...our national heritage and tradition dating from the 18th through the mid-20th century. However, America is no longer a ?young' nation. Rather, we are an ?aging' population, as we show in our analysis of demographic transitions reviewed in this paper. The phenomenon of ?cultural (or structural) lag' is discussed in two different contexts: first--the context of the aging family; and second--the context of ethnic/racial minority groups. Finally, some of the relevant public policy responses to aging are described. We look at government programs in four major categories, namely, (1) income; (2) health care; (3) social services; and (4) housing."     

Agricultural change and the rise of the British strawberry industry, 1920–2009

Little research has been conducted on structural change within the UK horticultural sector. This paper examines long-term changes, over a 90-year period, in one particular part of the UK horticultural sector: strawberries. It follows its growth from being a minor crop in 1920 to becoming the biggest grossing horticultural crop in 2009. Using a combination of long-term continuous datasets of agricultural statistics and primary data gathered from a behavioural study of the sector, three distinct phases of change are identified. The last phase, in particular, witnessed the biggest changes with the introduction of protected cultivation, the industrialisation of strawberry production and the divergence of practices and marketing methods leading to the formation of two distinct farm types. This industrialisation removed the geographical disadvantage of Scotland relative to England, encouraging growth of the Scottish strawberry industry and a spatial shift in the main production centres. Supermarkets have played a dominant role in the market for fresh strawberries and their importance in driving change is of high significance.     

Using Expert Judgments to Explore Robust Alternatives for Forest Management under Climate Change

We develop and apply a judgment‐based approach to selecting robust alternatives, which are defined here as reasonably likely to achieve objectives, over a range of uncertainties. The intent is to develop an approach that is more practical in terms of data and analysis requirements than current approaches, informed by the literature and experience with probability elicitation and judgmental forecasting. The context involves decisions about managing forest lands that have been severely affected by mountain pine beetles in British Columbia, a pest infestation that is climate‐exacerbated. A forest management decision was developed as the basis for the context, objectives, and alternatives for land management actions, to frame and condition the judgments. A wide range of climate forecasts, taken to represent the 10–90% levels on cumulative distributions for future climate, were developed to condition judgments. An elicitation instrument was developed, tested, and revised to serve as the basis for eliciting probabilistic three‐point distributions regarding the performance of selected alternatives, over a set of relevant objectives, in the short and long term. The elicitations were conducted in a workshop comprising 14 regional forest management specialists. We employed the concept of stochastic dominance to help identify robust alternatives. We used extensive sensitivity analysis to explore the patterns in the judgments, and also considered the preferred alternatives for each individual expert. The results show that two alternatives that are more flexible than the current policies are judged more likely to perform better than the current alternatives on average in terms of stochastic dominance. The results suggest judgmental approaches to robust decision making deserve greater attention and testing.     

The practice of clinical research in accredited marriage and family therapy programs

This study aims to explore the prevalence of clinic-based research among accredited marriage and family therapy (MFT) programs and reveal rationales explaining why academic settings may or may not be conducting clinical research. Findings of this project are the result of electronic-mail surveys completed by 26 accredited MFT programs. Approximately one-half of the respondents reported currently conducting clinic-based research. Open-ended responses reveal factors that lead to research success and failure, as well as reasons research was not being conducted at training programs.     

Integrative medicine clinic requires solid business plan

This case study of an clinic in California reveals how difficult it can be to successfully integrate traditional medicine with alternative therapies. Take a look at the obstacles that must be overcome.     

Nonstandard Work Schedules and Partnership Quality: Quantitative and Qualitative Findings

This article questions existing findings and provides new evidence about the consequences of nonstandard work schedules on partnership quality. Using quantitative couple data from The Netherlands Kinship Panel Study (NKPS) (N = 3,016) and semistructured qualitative interviews (N = 34), we found that, for women, schedules with varying hours resulted in greater relationship dissatisfaction than for men. Men with young children who worked varying hours had less relationship conflict and spent more time with children. Parents used nonstandard schedules for tag‐team parenting or to maintain perceptions of full‐time motherhood. The lack of negative effects, particularly for night shifts, suggests that previous findings—largely U.S. ones—are not universal and may be attributed to wider cultural, industrial relations, and economic contexts.