Asset Management Performance and Reputation Building for Large US Firms

Corporate audiences construct the reputation of firms by interpreting informational signals about the firms from various monitors. Of importance to these parties are signals about asset management. The results of our empirical study of 114 large US firms supported the general hypothesis that corporate audiences construct reputations on the basis of information about firms' asset management performance, specifically using market and accounting signals indicating size of the assets, market assessment of the value of the assets in place, asset turnover and profit margin.     

The role of bears and bear ceremonialism in Navajo Orthodox traditional lifeway

The Navajos, who now number over 200,000 in population, are the largest, and one of the most culturally intact Indian tribes in North America. Reigning over a reservation of some 25,000 square miles in size, the Navajos, like many other tribal people have long respected and honored bears as being fellow “being” with whom they share the land. Because of the bears power, intelligence, acute senses, and physical features which closely resemble that of a human, they have also played a major role in Navajo tribal legends and ceremonialism. The purpose of this article is to briefly examine the place of bears and bear ceremonialism within the structure of traditional Navajo beliefs and religious practices.     

Future Trends In World Population Growth

Because world population growth is marked by differing trends in the more developed and developing regions, the successful solution of future social and demographic problems will depend, in all likelihood, on whether population growth is considered in isolation or as a problem which is inextricably interwoven with other leading features of social and economic development.Both total population growth and changing age structure produce new economic and social problems, and within both the more developed and the developing regions, there are sub-areas in various stages of development. First, together with the total estimated increase in working-age population, there will be substantial differences in age structure. Although the proportion of world population of dependent age is expected to go down, up to 1980its level will be higher than in 1960, owingto an upward tendency in developing regions, where the "heavy youth dependency" is so extraordinarily high that even in 1980 there will be about ten children to every old person, and at the end of the century, more than seven. It is estimated that in the more developed regions there will be twenty-five to every one-hundred old persons in 1980, and twenty-two in the year 2000. This shows that heavy old-age dependency will have arisen in these regions. Second, the dependency ratio will probably grow, moreover, as a consequence of the degree of economic activity and variation. Although there will bea decrease in the proportion of dependent children, these will still constitute over one-half of the dependents in all areas. These forecasts seem to indicate that the changing structure of dependency and the increase in its total volume may be expected to create problems, particularly in the developing regions. Third, working life tends to become longer as a result of declining mortality, and this, combined with rising labor-force replacement levels, will result in an increased total labor supply.While such an expansion of world population obviously emphasizes the quantitative aspect of population problems, structural and qualitative aspects seem to be of equal importance. But these aspects are largely overshadowed by the growth problem, for growing numbers of people have more and more needs: the inflow of people into schools, into the labor market, and into towns and cities will be apparently unprecedented.In recent years circumstances have not favored the development of conditions needed for rapid change in reproductive behavior in the developing regions. The mobilization of resources and the adaption of different types of society in view of the future growth of total population-with emphasis on the less-developed regions-will be one of the most important challenges to mankind's ability to meet its own needs.The main value of the calculations of various characteristics of future population growth discussed in this paper is to show "in the light of contemporary information" future trends and some relationships of world population of world population growth to economic and social development.