Dechow, Myers, and Shakespeare (DMS, 2009) find a negative relation between income from securitization activities and income from non-securitization activities. DMS interprets this finding as indicating that managers use the flexibility available in fair value accounting rules to smooth earnings. We clarify the role of fair value in accounting for asset securitizations, discuss alternative explanations for the evidence presented in DMS, and offer suggestions for future research. We caution against inferring the desirability of any particular accounting method from earnings management research.

The article discusses how the islands of Barbados and Jamaica experienced different income levels and standards of living over time following their autonomy from Great Britain. The authors note that both islands were British colonies and feature similar forms of parliamentary democracy, protection for private property rights, and constitutions based on English common law. They suggest macroeconomic policy differences must be the source of the economic discrepancy. They note how growth of the bauxite industry and unemployment led to a transition of power in Jamaica from the Jamaican Labor Party (JLP) to the People's National Party (PNP), which promoted democratic socialism. They note how Barbados reacted to changes in oil prices by limiting government spending.

We use an innovative methodology to measure management practices in over 300 manufacturing firms in the UK. We then match this management data to production and energy usage information for establishments owned by these firms. We find that establishments in better managed firms are significantly less energy intensive. This effect is quantitatively substantial: going from the 25th to the 75th percentile of management practices is associated with a 17.4% reduction in energy intensity. Better managed firms are also significantly more productive. These results suggest that management practices that are associated with improved productivity are also linked to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Consumers use warmth and competence, two fundamental dimensions that govern social judgments of people, to form perceptions of firms. Three experiments showed that consumers perceive nonprofits as being warmer than for-profits but as less competent. Further, consumers are less willing to buy a product made by a nonprofit than a for-profit because of their perception that the firm lacks competence. Consequently, when perceived competence of a nonprofit is boosted through subtle cues that connote credibility, discrepancies in willingness to buy disappear. In fact, when consumers perceive high levels of competence and warmth, they feel admiration for the firm-which translates to consumers' increased desire to buy. This work highlights the importance of consumer stereotypes about nonprofit and for-profit companies that, at baseline, come with opposing advantages and disadvantages but that can be altered.

The study of management began many decades ago with close connections between research and practice and, in many instances, with a reformed orientation focused on improving the well-being of all organizational stakeholders. However, over time research has shifted to focus primarily on economic outcomes such as profits, productivity, and shareholder well-being as the dependent variables of most interest. Management research is also increasingly entranced with theory for its own sake and less interested in the concerns of professional practice. The renewal of management as an academic discipline can be accomplished primarily by making management research relevant again, a task that has important implications for both journals and academic career processes. Increasing the relevance of management also entails more replication so there is more confidence in findings as well as greater attention to the social concerns -- for instance, the well-being of employees -- that stimulated much early management scholarship.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enacted Rule 10b5-1 to deter insiders from trading with private information, yet also protect insiders’ preplanned, non-information-based trades from litigation. Despite its requirement that insiders plan trades when not privately informed, the rule appears to enable strategic trade. Participating insiders’ sales systematically follow positive and precede negative firm performance, generating abnormal forward-looking returns larger than those earned by nonparticipating colleagues. The observed association does not appear to be explained by market transaction disclosure response, "predictable" reversion following positive performance, or general periodic price declines. There is evidence, however, that a substantive proportion of randomly drawn plan initiations are associated with pending adverse news disclosures. There is also evidence that early sales plan terminations are associated with pending positive performance shifts, reducing the likelihood that insiders’ sales execute at low prices. Collectively, this suggests that, on average, trading within the rule does not solely reflect uninformed diversification.

Employers may offer employees a choice of health plans either to promote competition among plans or to better cater to employee preferences for different types of products. This article examines whether the relationship between the availability of choice and insurance costs and coverage are consistent with these models of employer behavior. The results indicate that employers who offer choice have lower average premiums, primarily because employees are enrolled in less generous plans, and cover a greater proportion of workers than those who do not. The results are consistent with employers offering choice to accommodate diverse worker preferences.

This paper analyzes how professional values and practices influence the character of nonprofit organizations. Expanded professionalism in the nonprofit world involves not only paid, full-time careers and credentialed expertise but also the integration of professional ideals into the everyday world of charitable work. We develop key indicators of professionalism and measure organizational rationalization as expressed in the use of strategic planning, independent financial audits, quantitative program evaluation, and consultants. As hypothesized, charities operated by paid personnel and full-time management show higher levels of rationalization. While traditional professionals (doctors, lawyers, and the clergy) do not differ significantly from executives with no credentialed background in eschewing business-like practices, managerial professionals champion such efforts actively, as do semi-professionals, albeit more modestly. Management training is also an important spur to rationalization. We assess what is gained and lost and the tension that can arise when nonprofits become professionalized and adopt more methodical, bureaucratic procedures.

This study investigates a particularly brazen form of corporate abuse, in which controlling shareholders use intercorporate loans to siphon billions of RMB from hundreds of Chinese listed companies during the 1996–2006 period. We document the nature and extent of these transactions, evaluate their economic consequences, examine factors that affect their cross-sectional severity, and report on the mitigating roles of auditors, institutional investors, and regulators. Collectively, our findings shed light on the severity of the minority shareholder expropriation problem in China, as well as the relative efficacy of various legal and extra-legal governance mechanisms in that country.