Do nonprofessional investors value the assurance of integrated reports? Exploratory evidence

Using an experimental design, this explorative study provides unique empirical evidence of the effects of an integrated reporting assurance (IRA) on nonprofessional investors’ (NPIs) financial decision-making in a laboratory experiment. For this purpose, two independent experiments were carried out, one relying on a sample of Master’s students, and one focusing on managers of large corporations. In line with our agency theoretical reasoning, we find that students value an IRA positively, evidenced through significantly higher investments, while, contrary to expectations, an IRA has the opposite effect for managers. The results reveal that, dependent on the empirical model, an IRA has either no, or even an investment-decreasing, impact on executives. In order to assess the sense-making process underlying this conundrum, subsequent interviews with the managers were carried out which revealed three dimensions that shape practitioners’ critical attitudes towards assurance engagements. First, managers expressed a general disbelief in the decision usefulness of integrated reporting (IR) to (nonprofessional) investors. Second, interlocutors referred to negative practical experiences with audit and assurance engagements and had technical doubts specific to IRA. Third, managers voiced emotional caveats regarding the audit and assurance profession. These findings indicate a prevailing divergence between the extolled theoretical contribution of an IRA to report credibility and its actual nature in practice. In the further course of the investigation, we also find that the assurance provider (Big 4 auditor versus specialized consultant) does not affect investment decisions, but that a higher assurance level leverages investments among students. The results of this study add to the growing, albeit still small, IRA research body and deliver valuable insights for research, regulators, and practice.     

G函数与农业超量供给分析

从GNP函数出发,以微观的生产超量供给为焦点,分析农产品国际贸易的宏观经济效应。借助利润函数,通过农产品市场的精细划分,令农业国际贸易与国内生产的联系更加明确。再运用超量供给的概念,通过生产函数与相应转换函数之间的系数比较,使有关分析更加深入,有关思想更加明确。     

论威尔斯《托诺·邦盖》中的符号消费

H．G．威尔斯是英国爱德华时代最重要的小说家之一，《托诺·邦盖》是威尔斯社会讽刺小说的代表作。《托诺·邦盖》对消费社会中的商品泡沫问题表现得淋漓尽致，向读者展示了一个金钱迷恋和商品崇拜的时代，具体体现在：第一，激昂的广告语言和异化的消费心理促成商机，从而使“托诺·邦盖”这种假药行销成功；第二，资本新责爱德华为彰显其高贵地位而进行炫耀性消费，而出身卑微的玛丽恩则通过婚姻关系来换取奢华消费能力。     

CO-tucker: a new method for the simultaneous analysis of a sequence of paired tables

Relationships between species and their environment are a key component to understand ecological communities. Usually, this kind of data are repeated over time or space for communities and their environment, which leads to a sequence of pairs of ecological tables, i.e. multi-way matrices. This work proposes a new method which is a combined approach of STATICO and Tucker3 techniques and deals to the problem of describing not only the stable part of the dynamics of structure–function relationships between communities and their environment (in different locations and/or at different times), but also the interactions and changes associated with the ecosystems’ dynamics. At the same time, emphasis is given to the comparison with the STATICO method on the same (real) data set, where advantages and drawbacks are explored and discussed. Thus, this study produces a general methodological framework and develops a new technique to facilitate the use of these practices by researchers. Furthermore, from this first approach with estuarine environmental data one of the major advantages of modeling ecological data sets with the CO-TUCKER model is the gain in interpretability.     

基于素数序列的差分跳频G函数设计

在简单相加G函数和基于移位寄存器G函数存在随机性能不足的基础上,结合素数序列构建了一类新的G函数,并对新旧G函数产生的跳频图案进行了性能检验和仿真分析.结果表明,新的G函数产生的跳频序列有良好的均匀性和近似理想的随机特性,克服了已有几种G函数的随机性能的不足,可提高差分跳频通信系统的抗干扰性能.     

An Estimator of the Exponent of Regular Variation Based on K-Record Values

Let {X _n:n ≥ 1} be an i.i.d. sequence of random variables with a continuous distribution function F. Under the assumption that the upper tail of Fis regularly varying with exponent 1/α, α > 0, we study the asymptotic properties of an estimator of α based on k-record values.     

利用有色浓淡斑点进行三维空间位置测试

提出有色方向符号匹配法，提出有色浓淡斑点，并利用顶点处配置了有色浓淡斑点的三角形标示进行空间位置测试。     

Reaching Beyond the Net: Political Circuits and Participation in Toronto's G20 Protests

Using a survey of 359 participants in the 2010 protests against the G20 in Toronto, this paper examines the effects and effectiveness of the different communication media in informing diverse participants about the protest. It finds that the communication networks that surrounded the G20 summit protest in Toronto in 2010 were dense and interconnected. Drawing on Tilly's ‘political circuits’, the survey shows that activists at the core of these networks used a combination of online and offline modes of communication, while those outside of that core were reliant on fewer channels of information about the protests. These included people of colour, people who are not part of student networks, less educated people and people less involved in existing social movements. Using logistic regression models, we demonstrate that the digital divide may be less important than the structure and means of communication that make up the political circuits of a movement. Based on these models, we argue that communication modes such as social networking sites and the mainstream media may be important tools for bridging the gap between core and peripheral participants.     

A Jackknife Method for Estimation of Variance Components

This paper concerns a method of estimation of variance components in a random effect linear model. It is mainly a resampling method and relies on the Jackknife principle. The derived estimators are presented as least squares estimators in an appropriate linear model, and one of them appears as a MINQUE (Minimum Norm Quadratic Unbiased Estimation) estimator. Our resampling method is illustrated by an example given by C. R. Rao [7] and some optimal properties of our estimator are derived for this example. In the last part, this method is used to derive an estimation of variance components in a random effect linear model when one of the components is assumed to be known.