Legitimacy theory may explain the failure of global adoption of IFRS: the case of Europe and the U.S.

We investigate the reasons why “adoption” of one set of globally accepted accounting standards is presently unachievable. By “adoption” we mean that a jurisdiction incorporates IFRS instantly as its national accounting as issued by the IASB. We state that the IASB has used a Legitimacy Theory strategy to gain acceptance of its standards by more than 120 countries across the globe but it has only gained pseudo-“adoption” (not as published by the IASB) of its standards by many countries. We contend that achieving policing and enforcement of its standards globally has proven to be empirically illusive. This legitimacy deficit may explain why convergence between the IASB and FASB is currently idle. We offer a possible solution to bridging the legitimacy gap of global adoption of IFRS. We propose an internationally respected regulator and suggest the IOSCO for this role through its participation in the IFRS Foundation Monitoring Board for policing and enforcement of IFRS for cross-listed firms reporting in compliance with IFRS so that the IASB’s output legitimacy may be achieved globally.     

Cooperative innovation through a talent management pool: A qualitative study on coopetition in healthcare

In recent years, the Dutch healthcare sector has been confronted with increased competition. Not only are financial resources scarce, Dutch hospitals also need to compete with other hospitals in the same geographic area to attract and retain talented employees due to considerable labour shortages. However, four hospitals operating in the same region are cooperating to cope with these shortages by developing a joint Talent Management Pool. ‘Coopetiton’ is a concept used for simultaneous cooperation and competition. In this paper, a case study is performed in order to enhance our understanding of coopetition. Among other things, the findings suggest that perceptions of organizational actors on competition differ and might hinder cooperative innovation with competitors, while perceived shared problems and resource constraints stimulate coopetition. We reflect on the current coopetition literature in light of the research findings, which have implications for future research on this topic.     

Autocratic leaders and authoritarian followers revisited: A review and agenda for the future

Despite a long history within the field of leadership, the subject of authoritarianism and how it influences leadership and leadership processes has been neglected in recent decades. However, recent global events make it clear that a better understanding of authoritarianism is needed and that leadership researchers would benefit from a renewed interest in studying why followers embrace autocratic leaders. The nature of authoritarian character, how authoritarian values develop, and how it is measured will be discussed. We will also review autocratic leadership, the factors that make it more likely, its consequences for followers, and the moderators of its effects. A future research agenda for the study of authoritarian character and autocratic leadership will be provided.     

Privatization and National Development: A Case Study of Ghana

Proponents of privatization claim that privatization can enhance efficiency, reduce public sector debt and consequently improve overall economic performance. However, in many developing countries, and Africa in particular, the evidence is mixed. An exploratory study is done from the perspective of citizens’ about the impact of privatization on the Ghanaian national economy. The findings of the study suggest that: 1) the privatization program is pro rich; it benefits the economic and political elites more than it benefits the nation as a whole; 2) there is a high level of corruption associated with the privatization process; and 3) Privatization is not considered as one of the most important tools needed for national development, though the survey finds that many respondents believe that there is the need for some reforms in the public sector to promote national development. The results of the study indicate that administrative and political problems cannot be overcome simply by reducing the size of the state bureaucracy, but rather making government more accountable in meeting the needs of its people.     

Optimal on-line algorithms for one batch machine with grouped processing times

In this paper, we study on-line scheduling problems on a batch machine with the assumption that all jobs have their processing times in [p, (1+φ)p], where p>0 and \(\phi=(\sqrt{5}-1)/2\). Jobs arrive over time. First, we deal with the on-line problem on a bounded batch machine with the objective to minimize makespan. A class of algorithms with competitive ratio \((\sqrt{5}+1)/2\) are given. Then we consider the scheduling on an unbounded batch machine to minimize the time by which all jobs have been delivered, and provide a class of on-line algorithms with competitive ratio \((\sqrt{5}+1)/2\). The two class of algorithms are optimal for the problems studied here.     

On the Diaconis-Gangolli Markov chain for sampling contingency tables with cell-bounded entries

The problems of uniformly sampling and approximately counting contingency tables have been widely studied, but efficient solutions are only known in special cases. One appealing approach is the Diaconis and Gangolli Markov chain which updates the entries of a random 2×2 submatrix. This chain is known to be rapidly mixing for cell-bounded tables only when the cell bounds are all 1 and the row and column sums are regular. We demonstrate that the chain can require exponential time to mix in the cell-bounded case, even if we restrict to instances for which the state space is connected. Moreover, we show the chain can be slowly mixing even if we restrict to natural classes of problem instances, including regular instances with cell bounds of either 0 or 1 everywhere, and dense instances where at least a linear number of cells in each row or column have non-zero cell-bounds.     

On domination number of Cartesian product of directed paths

Let γ(G) denote the domination number of a digraph G and let P _m □P _n denote the Cartesian product of P _m and P _n , the directed paths of length m and n. In this paper, we give a lower and upper bound for γ(P _m □P _n ). Furthermore, we obtain a necessary and sufficient condition for P _m □P _n to have efficient dominating set, and determine the exact values: γ(P ₂□P _n )=n, g(P₃\square P_n)=n+é\fracn4ù\gamma(P_{3}\square P_{n})=n+\lceil\frac{n}{4}\rceil, g(P₄\square P_n)=n+é\frac2n3ù\gamma(P_{4}\square P_{n})=n+\lceil\frac{2n}{3}\rceil, γ(P ₅□P _n )=2n+1 and g(P₆\square P_n)=2n+é\fracn+23ù\gamma(P_{6}\square P_{n})=2n+\lceil\frac{n+2}{3}\rceil.     

Stress and Leadership Tendencies of Respondents from Iran: Exploring Similarities and Differences Based on Age and Gender

The leadership tendencies of people are likely to be influenced by their cultural contexts. For example, it is expected that people from high-context cultures are likely to be more focused on relationships. To explore the behavioral tendencies of working adults in the cities of Tehran and Kerman, this pilot study focused on comparing the leadership and stress perceptions of 228 Iranian respondents based on their age and gender. These respondents have a significantly higher score on relationship orientation. On the other side, the younger respondents from Iran had a significantly higher score on the stress overload perception. Practical suggestions for expatriates and implications for future studies are presented.     

A linear programming duality approach to analyzing strictly nonblocking <Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis>-ary multilog networks under general crosstalk constraints

When a switching network topology is used for constructing optical cross-connects, as in the circuit switching case, no two routes are allowed to share a link. However, if two routes share too many switching elements, then crosstalk introduced at those switching elements degrades signal quality. Vaez and Lea (IEEE Trans. Commun. 48:(2)316–323, 2000) introduced a parameter c which is the maximum number of distinct switching elements a route can share with other routes in the network. This is called the general crosstalk constraint. This paper presents a new method of analyzing strictly nonblocking multi-log networks under this general crosstalk constraint using linear programming duality.