Board monitoring efficiency and the value of conservative accounting

Journal of Management and Governance - This paper provides a theoretical explanation for the observation that firms with strong corporate governance exhibit more conservative accounting. We study...     

Attacking the Market Split Problem with Lattice Point Enumeration

The market split problem was proposed by Cornuéjols and Dawande as benchmark problem for algorithms solving linear systems with 0/1 variables. Here, we present an algorithm for the more general problem A · x = b with arbitrary lower and upper bound on the variables. The algorithm consists of exhaustive enumeration of all points of a suitable lattice which are contained in a given polyhedron. We present results for the feasibility version as well as for the integer programming version of the market split problem which indicate that the algorithm outperforms the previously published approaches to this problems considerably.     

Interactive Multiple Objective Decision Support for Sales Force Sizing and Deployment*

An interactive decision aid is introduced for the deployment of two sales resources: salespeople and sales support staff. The aid consists of a normative sales resource allocation model with five objectives and an interactive multiple objective programming solution procedure. The specific decision problem addressed involves the assignment of salespeople and sales support people to customer accounts and the allocation of the time they spend on these accounts. The authors contribute to the existing sales resource modeling literature by dealing with the deployment of two sales resources and interactively solving this problem with respect to five short-run and long-run objectives of the firm. This approach differs from existing sales force modeling efforts in which the solution is found noninteractively by optimizing a single sales resource model with respect to a single objective, often short-run sales. An application of the decision aid to the deployment problem of an industrial sales force manager is presented. Furthermore, useful extensions of the basic sales resource allocation model are discussed.     

Effects of a sleep hygiene text message intervention on sleep in college students

Objective: To test the effectiveness of a text-message intervention to promote sleep hygiene to improve sleep in young adult college students. Participants: A convenience sample of undergraduate students from one Southwestern university (n = 96), 18–26 years old, recruited in August 2015. Methods: A 2-group pretest-posttest experimental design assigned participants to receive biweekly text messages about sleep hygiene or healthy behaviors for 6 weeks. Survey questions addressed sleep knowledge, sleep hygiene, self-efficacy for sleep hygiene, and sleep quality at baseline and posttest. Results: Though not significant, sleep quality, sleep hygiene, and sleep knowledge improved in both groups. Conclusions: Self-efficacy for sleep hygiene is a modifiable factor that may serve to improve sleep quality. Sleep quality improved in both groups. Text messaging is a feasible approach to delivering an intervention to promote healthy behaviors among young adults.     

Aktuelle Herausforderungen im internen Change Management der Commerzbank und der Deutschen Bahn

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - Dieser Artikel der Zeitschrift ?Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)“...     

Confidence in the economy in times of crisis: Social representations of experts and laypeople

This study investigates experts’ and laypeople's social representations of the financial and economic crisis, as widely discussed in the media after the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Financial experts (n = 156) and laypeople (n = 153) with low versus high confidence in the economic recovery spontaneously associated thoughts and beliefs about the crisis and to economic and political stakeholders. Following a mixed-methods approach, they evaluated economic stakeholders with regard to six trust items. The study was conducted in March 2010 in Austria, which was moderately affected by the crisis. The results indicate that economic variables (e.g., unemployment) were central to the social representations of the crisis, while underlying feelings of unfairness and egoism surfaced during the ongoing process of association. The social representation did not comprise a general criticism of the economic system. The differences between the subgroups depended on identification-based self-protection and economic knowledge. Experts and laypeople tended to attribute the economic crisis to specific stakeholders in a self-protecting way: experts blamed the media, laypeople blamed the managers, and both blamed the politicians. Interestingly, the subgroups tended to evaluate the banks as being relatively neutral. Expertise and differentiated economic knowledge was related to confidence in the economic recovery. Thus, the perceived capability of politicians in terms of competence and morality seems crucial for regaining public confidence in the economy.     

Do labour market reforms reduce labour productivity growth? A panel data analysis of 20 OECD countries (1960–2004)

Based on comprehensive regression analysis, the authors find that weak wage growth and a smaller labour share of national income significantly reduce labour productivity growth. They conclude that supply‐side labour market reforms have contributed to reducing labour productivity growth: this cannot be explained by a deregulation‐induced inflow of low‐productivity labour as proposed by OECD researchers. They also discuss why deregulation, easier firing and higher labour turnover may damage learning and knowledge accumulation in companies, notably by weakening the functioning of the “routinized” innovation model (“Schumpeter II”). Finally, their findings raise doubts about the relevance of Baumol's law and Verdoorn's law.     

What’s the Confusion About Fusion?—Differentiating Positive and Negative Closeness in Lesbian Relationships

This study differentiated between closeness and fusion in lesbian relationships, and examined whether age, adult attachment style, social support, outness, and relationship satisfaction were associated with these variables. Participants consisted of 77 women in long-term, lesbian relationships. Overall, women who reported showing greater closeness toward their partners were more satisfied in their relationships. Age and attachment style were better predictors of closeness and fusion than were social support and outness. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. Findings highlight the need for therapists to distinguish between positive and negative types of closeness in lesbian relationships, and avoid pathologizing high levels of closeness in lesbian relationships simply because they may deviate from a heterosexual norm.     

Safety first?

The Royal Statistical Society working party on medical studies on human volunteers made its report on March 13th this year, a year to the day after the disastrous TGN1412 trial left six volunteers gravely ill. Stephen Senn , who chaired the working party, reflects.