Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants and usefulness of analysts' cash flow forecasts: evidence from Australia

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of analysts' operating cash flow forecasts of Australian listed firms and whether or not such forecasts improve the usefulness of earnings and predictive ability of current cash flows. Design/methodology/approach - The authors used a large sample of firms for which both cash flows and earnings forecasts were available over a period between 1993 and 2003, and employed both univariate and logistic regression analyses. Findings - It was found that analysts forecast both operating cash flows and earnings when the firms are more complex in operations and when the size of the firm is relatively small. Further, it was found that cash flow forecasts improve the usefulness of earnings and predictive ability of current cash flows. Originality/value - This study contributes to current understanding of analysts' forecast behaviour regarding dissemination of operating cash flow information and usefulness of cash flow forecasts.
Former closed cities and urbanisation in the FSU: an exploration in Kazakhstan

Since the demise of central planning, post-Soviet cities have found themselves operating in a radically different economic climate. Contrary to the situation during the Soviet epoque, market relations and the urban economy's adjustment thereto constitute the reality which urbanites face in their daily lives. For the vast majority, this reality has been harsh. Even so, market agency in post-Soviet cities is circumscribed by a physical infrastructure composed to foster its rejection, leading to an inevitable tension between Soviet legacy and the reality of the market economy. An overarching task of this dissertation is to contribute to a greater understanding of the new urban form which is emerging out of this tension. For this purpose, eight papers, using case studies from urban Kazakhstan, are brought together in order to shed light on recent urban developments in the former Soviet Union.Two broad themes are subject to particular attention: urbanisation and regional migration processes, and urban socio-spatial differentiation. Urbanisation is studied through the comparative analysis of census data from 1989 and 1999, from which a "closed city effect" pattern emerges. Sovietand post-Soviet era urban-bounf migrant characteristics are compared using survey data (N=3,136) collected by the author, demonstrating the existence of a significant ethnic transition within the migrant flow. Socio-spatial differentiation patterns are mapped and analysed for three Kazakh military-industrial case study cities (Ust'-Kamenogorsk, Leninogorsk and Zyryanovsk), revealing significant spatial disparities which are principally explainable in light of the workings of the Soviet economy, and its built-in priority system. Market forces tend to accentuate them.
Cost-Benefit Default Principles

In an important but thus far unnoticed development, federal courts have created a new series of "default principles" for statutory interpretation, authorizing regulatory agencies, when statutes are unclear, (a) to exempt trivial risks from regulation and thus to develop a kind of common law of "acceptable risks," (b) to take account of substitute risks created by regulation, and thus to engage in "health-health" tradeoffs, (c) to consider whether compliance with regulation is feasible, (d) to take costs into account, and (e) to engage in cost-benefit balancing, and thus to develop a kind of common law of cost-benefit analysis. These cost-benefit default principles are both legitimate and salutary, because they give rationality and sense the benefit of the doubt. At the same time, they leave many open questions. They do not say whether agencies are required, and not merely permitted, to go in the direction they indicate; they do not indicate when agencies might reasonably reject the principles; and they do not say what, specifically, will be counted as an "acceptable" risk or a sensible form of cost-benefit analysis. Addressing the open questions, this essay urges that the principles should ordinarily be taken as mandatory, not merely permissive; that agencies may reject them in certain identifiable circumstances; and that steps should be taken toward quantitative analysis of the effects of regulation, designed to discipline the relevant inquiries. An understanding of these points should promote understanding of emerging "second generation" debates, involving not whether to adopt a presumption in favor of cost-benefit balancing, but when the presumption is rebutted, and what, in particular, cost-benefit analysis should be taken to entail.
The Effects of Exchange Rates on Thailand's Agriculture Goods Exports

The objective of this paper was to determine and explain the effect of exchange rates rice and rubber goods exports from January 2003 to June 2014 time period. The study was the quantitative research using regression. The results indicated negative relationships between exchange rates and agriculture goods exports that were total agriculture goods rubber, rice, and tapioca exports
The Dynamic Effects of Neutral and Investment‐Specific Technology Shocks

The neoclassical growth model is used to identify the short‐run effects of neutral technology shocks, which affect the production of all goods homogeneously, and investment‐specific shocks, which affect only investment goods. The real equipment price, crucial for identifying the investment shocks, experiences an abrupt increase in its average rate of decline in 1982, so the analysis is based on a split sample. On the basis of the preferred specification, the two technology shocks account for 73 percent of hours’ and 44 percent of output’s business cycle variation before 1982, and 38 percent and 80 percent afterward. The shocks also account for more than 40 percent of hours’ and 58 percent of output’s forecast errors over a three‐ to eight‐year horizon in both samples. The majority of these effects are driven by the investment shocks.
Variations in Union Presence and Density in Australia: Evidence from AWIRS, 1989

There has been much recent work, using the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey data set, on the impact of unions on various economic variables. In contrast, this paper has union presence and density as the dependent variables, since not only are these of interest in their own right, but they also have the advantage of pointing to the potential bias of regression estimates that treat union impact variables as exogenous of the control variables typically used to predict union presence. Since establishment-level data is used, the factors that influence union activity from the employers' perspective are included. Thus, particular attention is paid to the impact of human resources management policies on union presence and density. The latter were found to be important, together with plant and firm size, workforce characteristics, and product market variables. The inclusion of the inverse Mills ratio in the density equation, to control for sample selectivity bias, was found to be necessary.
Digital computer analyzed sleep and resting EEG during haloperidol treatment.

The authors studied the effects of haloperidol on resting and all-night sleep EEGs of chronic schizophrenic patients. There was a decrease in slow waves and an increase in fast activity during resting and sleep EEGs as well as a decrease in the time spent in deep sleep stages during sleep. The findings support the hypothesis that compounds that are most effective with chronic schizophrenic patients have both central inhibitory and stimulating components.
Aprendizagem organizacional baseada no conceito de prática: contribuições de silvia gherardi

El aprendizaje organizacional es un tema que ya tiene muchos estudios con diferentes enfoques ontologicos y epistemologicos que se reflejan en un campo multiparadigmatico (ANTONELLO; GODOY, 2010). Un enfoque se refiere a la vision sociologica del aprendizaje en las organizaciones (GHERARDI; NICOLINI; ODELLA, 1998; GHERARDI; NICOLINI, 2001) en la que el entorno social es el espacio donde hay procesos de aprendizaje y generacion de conocimientos. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es presentar y discutir los aportes de Silvia Gherardi que es una de las principales investigadoras internacionales en el campo del aprendizaje en las organizaciones y tiene una gran cantidad de literatura cientifica sobre el tema, haciendo hincapie en la perspectiva sociologica de aprender con la practica. Esta meta es la razon por la que a pesar de una vasta literatura sobre el aprendizaje organizacional en el contexto brasileno son muy pocos los estudios que han adoptado algunas de las perspectivas sociologicas de aprendizaje, esta brecha se identifica en el trabajo de Bispo y Mello (2012). Como contribuciones este articulo tiene la intencion: (1) presentar en un unico texto las principales ideas y conceptos Silvia Gherardi; (2) aportar al debate de los expertos brasilenos en el campo de la aprendizaje uma perspectiva social sociologica que permite una mejor comprension de como funciona el aprendizaje en los niveles de grupo y organizacional. La investigacion cualitativa se basa esencialmente en una revision bibliografica de las obras de Gherardi complementadas con conversaciones informales con el autor durante su estancia en la Universidad de Trento en 2010 y 2013, ademas de algunos e-mails despues de regresar a Brasil. Como una contribucion, este trabajo presenta una reflexion sobre la adopcion de practicas como elemento generador de aprendizaje colectivo, asi como constitutor de las organizaciones aplicando-se como un nuevo paradigma que lleva en sus supuestos ontologicos y epistemologicos una alternativa para contribuir al avance de los estudios sobre el aprendizaje organizacional.
JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS November 1977 A PROBABILITY MODEL OF ASSET TRADING

Thomas E. Copeland* In a world where individuals are assumed to receive new information about an asset in random and sequential order, the volume of trading for a given message is a random variable. If the probabilities of trading events can be specified, it is possible to develop closed form expressions for the expected number of trades and the variance of trading. The result is a theory of trading which relates the number of trades to the characteristics of the message and to the number of participants in the market for an asset. Although the theory of trading does not directly incorporate real world institutional considerations such as the role of a trading specialist, or the bid-ask spread, there are insights that a theory of trading can provide. For example, articles by Demsetz [7], Tinic [21], West and Tinic [22], and Benston and Hagerman [1] deal with the bid-ask spread, and volume is perhaps the most important explanatory variable. Demsetz [7] argues that the bid-ask spread is the price paid for "immediacy" in the supply and demand for security transactions. Given higher volume, a dealer can carry a smaller inventory relative to the total volume of trading. Hence higher volume implies lower bid-ask spreads. The theory of trading developed here shows that as the number of market participants increases, the expected number of trades increases logarithmically and the relative trading risk, measured by the coefficient of variation, decreases. This insight provides a direct relationship between the bid-ask spread and the number of market participants.
The influence of corporate image, relationship marketing, and trust on purchase intention: the moderating effects of word‐of‐mouth

Purpose – The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of corporate image and relationship marketing on trust, the impact of trust on consumer purchase intention, and the moderating effects of word‐of‐mouth between the influence of trust on consumer purchase intention.Design/methodology/approach – Consumers of an online travel agency in Taiwan aged over 18 were taken as the research sample. Primary data were collected through convenience sampling. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.Findings – The main findings are: corporate image has a significantly positive influence on trust, and commodity image has the most significant influence on trust, followed by functional image and institution image; structural and financial relationship marketing has significantly positive influence on trust, and structural relationship marketing has greater influence on trust compared with financial relationship marketing; trust has a significantly positive influence on consumer purchase inte.
Transovarial transmission of Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes dammini (Acari:Ixodidae).

mini nymphs and adults in the northeastern United States, the former are considered primary vectors [1, 2]. The prevalence of infection for host-seeking nymphs and adults ranged between 11% and 69% [3-5]. Fluorescent-antibody (FA) staining of midgut diverticula and other internal tissues of field-collected I. dammini larvae revealed no spirochetes [4, 5] or a very low prevalence (<1%) of infection [6]. Thus, transovarial transmission of B. burgdorferi in I. dammini seems to be insignificant. In contrast, Burgdorfer et al. [7] reported transovarial transmission rates of 100% and 60% for the larval progeny of two I ricinus females that had fed from white rabbits and deposited eggs. It is unclear whether the lower values for I. dammini were due to bias in sampling procedures or if there are interspecific physiological differences among members of the I. ricinus complex. Because larvae of I. dammini feed on humans [8] during the summer, it is important to know if they are potential vectors. Accordingly, we determined the prevalence of infection for larvae reared from eggs deposited by field-collected, engorged female ticks.
Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge

– Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies. , – This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. , – In the business world, imitation gets a bad rap. We see imitating firms as “me too” players, forced to play catchup because they have nothing original to offer. In Copycats, Oded Shenkar challenges this viewpoint. He reveals how imitation is as critical to prosperity as innovation and how savvy imitators generate huge profits. They save not only on R&D costs but also on marketing and advertising investments made by first movers, and avoid costly errors by observing and learning from others' trials. , – Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations. , – Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that can have a broader social impact. , – Copycats presents suggestions for making imitation a core element in your competitive strategy and pairing it powerfully with innovation.
Environmental Assessment in the European Union: Perspectives, Past, Present and Strategic

Environmental assessment (EA) in the European Union (EU) is undergoing a period of significant transition. Following over 10 years of practice and development under Directive 85/337/EEC, the EU EA system is being subjected to legislative reform. In the light of this, this paper provides a critical examination of the past, present and future role of EA in the EU. After evaluating the legislative transposition and procedural effectiveness of the original provisions, the paper examines the extent to which recent amendments to the Directive and the proposed strategic environmental assessment (SEA) Directive will lead to improvement. The authors suggest that although the changes should overcome some of the procedural and practical problems experienced over the last 10 years, a more committed emphasis needs to be placed on fundamental areas of weakness.
Coping with uncertainty – exploration, exploitation, and collaboration in R&D

This paper studies the formation of and the motives for research and development (R&D) activities. In it, we explore the linkages between explorative and exploitative R&D activities and the different types of governance structures firms use when organising R&D. Additionally, we analyse the relationship between different kinds of firm-external uncertainties arising from the operating environments and the organisation of R&D activities. Finally, we scrutinise the impact of the collaboration mode on a firm’s innovative performance, and stress the important role of knowledge sharing as a generator of success in innovative performance. We employ survey data from our sample of 299 Finnish companies. The findings indicate that a firm’s choice of R&D governance structure is partly affected by the selection of an explorative or exploitative strategy, which in turn depends on the degree of firm-internal uncertainty. External dynamism is an additional factor affecting the choice of the preferred governance structure.
Superior efficacy of pulsatile versus continuous hormone exposure on hepatic glucose production in vitro.

To elucidate the potency of continuous vs. intermittent exposure to hormonal stimuli, hepatic glucose production of isolated perfused rat livers was monitored in response to glucagon and insulin infusion. Using a nonrecirculating perfusion system, continuous exposure to glucagon (35 pM) induced a rise in hepatic glucose production from basal 0.33 +/- 0.03 mmol/(96 min X 100 g BW) to 0.65 +/- 0.02 mmol/(96 min X 100 g BW), while intermittent exposure (3 min on/off intervals; total dose 50%) to the same glucagon concentration elicited an almost identical rise in hepatic glucose production to 0.59 +/- 0.12 mmol/(96 in X 100 g BW). Insulin (100 mU/liter) given continuously and intermittently (3 min on/off intervals) inhibited glucagon-stimulated (70 pM) hepatic glucose production to the same extent, i.e. by 37.4% and 41.1%, respectively. Doubling the off period to 6 min and thereby reducing the total hormone dose to 33% did not diminish insulin's suppressive effect on glucagon-stimulated hepatic glucose release (34.6%). When the latter infusion protocol was applied with insulin at 300 mU/liter, hepatic glucose production during the first 40 min of glucagon infusion was more restrained (P less than 0.01) than during continuous delivery of 100 mU/liter, although the same amount of insulin was infused per period of time. In parallel, glucagon-stimulated cAMP release was similarly suppressed by insulin in all experiments. From this we conclude that the effect on hepatic glucose production of pulsatile administration of glucagon as well as of insulin, depending on the applied time interval of hormone exposure, is equipotent or even superior to the respective hormones' continuous infusion even if the hormone load is significantly reduced.
Entrepreneur start-up versus persistence decisions: A critical evaluation of expectancy and value

Research suggests that entrepreneurs tend to seek to maximize utility when considering whether to pursue a new venture opportunity. However, when choosing whether to persist with their current venture or not, utility maximization may not be of primary importance. Using a conjoint experiment, this article examines the difference between policies in start-up decisions versus persistence decisions. The analysis of the decisions of 135 entrepreneurs indicates that the manner in which entrepreneurs use expectancy and value in persistence decision policies is significantly different to the way that they use expectancy and value in general opportunity pursuit decision policies. The results offer novel insights into the entrepreneurial decision-making process.
Policy Analysis with Incredible Certitude

Analyses of public policy regularly express certitude about the consequences of alternative policy choices. Yet policy predictions often are fragile, with conclusions resting on critical unsupported assumptions. Then the certitude of policy analysis is not credible. This paper develops a typology of incredible analytical practices and gives illustrative cases. I call these practices conventional certitudes, dueling certitudes, conflating science and advocacy, and wishful extrapolation. I contrast these practices with my vision for credible policy analysis.
Staffing practices in transition: some empirical evidence from China

Although the reform of staffing practices in China has been discussed in the literature, the rationale behind this reform and changes in this HR activity have received insufficient attention and warrant further examination. This article reviews staffing practices during and after Mao's regime, and reports the results of a survey of staffing practices in Chinese industrial enterprises. The research findings indicate that a free labour market is emerging in China, staffing practices are becoming more decentralized and selection criteria have focused more on job-specific information, such as personal ability and skills, rather than political factors. The empirical results also demonstrate that ownership form does have an impact on staffing practices. The paper concludes by arguing that staffing practices in China have revealed only some resemblance to those conducted in the Western market economies.
Characteristics of Performance Measures for External Reporting

Abstract The characteristics of the performance measures used in internal or external reports are becoming more and more important. Indeed, most companies disclose non-financial information to their stakeholders. The Standards Committee of the American Accounting Association (Maines et al., 2002) states that non-financial performance measures should be judged against the same criteria as financial performance measures, i.e. relevance, reliability and comparability. The purpose of this paper is to present the results from an empirical study conducted on the non-financial and the financial information disclosed by the 250 biggest French listed companies within their financial communication. It deals more specifically with the characteristics of relevance, reliability and comparability of this information. The design of this study is based on an exploratory survey conducted last year on the French CAC 40 (the 40 French biggest listed corporations on the Paris Stock Exchange).
Critical Issues Surrounding Test Accommodations: A Language Planning and Policy Perspective

Testing has become a central concern for educators concerned with English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. public schools. The development of the policies and practices surrounding the use of test accommodations, or changes to the test response, administration, or test itself (Abedi, 2008), for this population have been and continue to be influenced by multiple complicating forces. These factors include but are not exclusively restricted to language and testing policies, national educational policy and discourses in addition to students with disabilities research and policy. This paper, therefore, aims to identify and clarify some critical issues that surround the practice of test accommodations for ELLs as seen through a language planning and policy lens. This approach of framing test accommodations as a form of language policy brings into relief the myriad of language-specific factors, such as framing language diversity from a deficit perspective, that surround testing accommodations.