bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Corporate real estate practice in Australia
Authors: Wills Peter C. 
Published: May 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the corporate real estate (CRE) practices of 25 major corporations in Australia. It will study such areas as, what constitutes CRE, the performance measures used in CRE practice, CRE management units, planning horizons in CRE, owned and leased CRE, outsourcing policies for CRE, use of benchmarking measures to assess the performance of CRE, use of “gain share” practices in CRE operations, use of flexible CRE practices and the role of cost or profit centres in corporations.Design/methodology/approachA data base was established using 25 companies (corporations) taken from the top 200 listed in the Australian Financial Review. Contact was made with the companies and interviews were carried out to obtain the relevant data. As well as the annual reports for the companies were analysed over the last five years to extract the necessary financial and additional property data.FindingsThe conclusions indicate that there is a great disparity between corporations. This may indicate that certain classes/types of companies do not need the CRE assets that others do. It may also indicate, as previously supported by other research, that some companies fail to capitalize on the potential of their CRE assets to increase overall return and in the long run increase shareholder value. It also revealed that most companies are disposing of property in an attempt to enhance shareholder value. This is reflected in new and innovative ways of financing CRE and moving CRE off the balance sheet.Originality/valueThis study represents the first attempt to extract data direct from company balance sheets and then carry out interviews to assess the role of CRE in company policy.
Performance measurement for accountability in corporate governance
Authors: Feroz Ehsan H. , Goel Sanjay , Raab Raymond L. 
Published: May 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show the applicability of data envelopment analysis (DEA) in arriving at an unbiased account of relative performance in a set of companies, using the pharmaceutical industry as an example.Design/methodology/approachA DEA‐based income efficiency measure of business performance for the pharmaceutical industry is computed. The pharmaceutical industry, which includes many multinational corporations with complex governance problems, and the strategies that allowed firm efficiency rankings to change over time, over ten recent years, are analyzed.FindingsThe analyses indicate that the inclines and declines in DEA efficiency rankings are related to the strategic choices made by the upper management.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper attempted to trace firm behavior post hoc to validate the DEA rankings. All relevant firm behavior may not have been captured; the paper only attempted to capture behavior reported in the respectable business press, which may introduce a bias.Practical implicationsThe approach may be ideal to evaluate strategic managers (CEOs, general managers, and presidents) by board of directors, since it relates multiple performance indices to a meta‐measure of performance. Another group of beneficiaries include sector financial analysts. The approach adds a new dimension to sector analysis, to compare specific industries and identify the relative rankings of firms on multiple performance indices.Originality/valueThe paper demonstrates the usefulness of DEA in performance governance measurement by applying it to the pharmaceuticals industry.
Accounting for derivative instruments and hedging activities (SFAS No. 133)
Authors: Eckstein Claire , Markelevich Ariel , Reinstein Alan 
Published: May 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of firms using derivatives applying Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 133. It aims to measure the magnitude of cumulative effects of changes in accounting principle from the income statement in the year of adoption, market reaction to earnings announcements, and key financial ratios effects.Design/methodology/approachSearch of the Compustat Industrial database for firms reporting a cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle in their annual income statements for fiscal years ending after 15 June, 2000. We then examine the impact of firms using derivatives applying SFAS No. 133.FindingsThe sampled firms reported an absolute cumulative effect on income of $6.8 billion, 65 per cent of which was negative. Significant negative unexpected returns were observed around earnings announcement dates. Abnormal returns correlated with the cumulative effect, rather than with change in earnings per share from operations, showing that the surprise related to the accounting change. Ratio analyzes and regressions results show sampled firms with material unrealized gains and losses related to hedging with derivative instruments. Earnings‐related ratios, return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and measures of other comprehensive income decreased significantly from 2000 to 2001 after experiencing prior period significant increases.Practical implicationsThe results presented in the paper should lead to further research on the effect on new authoritative standards on the financial reporting process.Originality/valueRather than judge SFAS No. 133's relative merits and shortcomings, the Standard's actual (rather than predicted) effects were analyzed. Focus was on the magnitude of the impact of SFAS No. 133 and the effect on key financial ratios. The impact of adopting the Standard was analyzed and it was found that it violated a basic tenet of financial accounting pronouncements: a “value neutral” basis was examined.
Market valuation of accrual components
Authors: Francis Rick 
Published: May 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to generate empirical evidence that facilitates our understanding of the market pricing for cash flows and accruals.Design/methodology/approachThe study is empirical in nature, and utilizes and archival methodology.FindingsThe evidence in this study supports the primary hypothesis that the market valuations for the receivable accrual are greater than the valuations for other current accruals. Additionally, the results suggest that market valuations for cash flows are not monotonically greater than the valuations for accruals.Research limitations/implicationsOverall, the results of this study suggest that inferences about the market's valuation of cash flows and accruals must consider multiple sources of variation in a concurrent fashion.Practical implicationsModels for equity valuation used by financial analysts, institutional investors, etc. should allow the various components of accruals to act independently.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by synthesizing various aspects of capital markets research in accounting to enhance our understanding of the role that cash flows and accruals maintain for equity valuation.
Catastrophe effects on stock markets and catastrophe risk securitization
Authors: Yang Charles C. , Wang Mulong , Chen Xiaoying 
Published: May 2008

PurposeConventional wisdom states that catastrophe risk securities show no or little correlation with stock and bond markets, and offer significant attractions to investors providing a good diversification of risks. This study examines the correlation between catastrophe risk securities and portfolios of other equities by analyzing catastrophe effects on the Japanese stock market.Design/methodology/approachUsing catastrophe data from SwissRe Sigma publications and stock returns from the Pacific‐Basin Capital Markets database, this paper analyzes stock and abnormal returns in the Japanese stock market using event study methodology.FindingsFor the Japanese stock market as a whole, there is no significant catastrophe effect. The results indicate a significant negative correlation between catastrophe loss amount and the insurance industry's equity returns and abnormal returns, a significant positive correlation with the construction industry, but no significant correlation with the real estate industry. This paper also analyzes the impact of catastrophe causalities. The results show little evidence on the significance of these variables.Originality/valueThis study provides important insights to the insurance/reinsurance industry in the Japanese risk market for catastrophe property and mortality risk securitization and to investors who are interested in further improvement of their portfolio risk/return profile by including catastrophe risk securities.
Wald's maximin model: a treasure in disguise!
Authors: Sniedovich Moshe 
Published: May 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to illustrate the expressive power of Wald's maximin model and the mathematical modeling effort requisite in its application in decision under severe uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachDecision making under severe uncertainty is art as well as science. This fact is manifested in the insight and ingenuity that the modeller/analyst is required to inject into the mathematical modeling of decision problems subject to severe uncertainty. The paper elucidates this point in a brief discussion on the mathematical modeling of Wald's maximin paradigm.FindingsThe apparent simplicity of the maximin paradigm implies that modeling it successfully requires a considerable mathematical modeling effort.Practical implicationsThe paper illustrates the importance of mastering the art of mathematical modeling especially in the application of Wald's maximin model.Originality/valueThis paper sheds new light on some of the modeling aspects of Wald's maximin paradigm.
Conceptual lessons on financial strategy following the US sub‐prime crisis
Authors: Foo Check‐Teck 
Published: May 2008

PurposeOn September 18, 2007, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee took a major step by cutting the federal funds rate by one‐half a percent (50 basis points). The only time this had happened in the USA was immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Then the sub‐prime derivatives market threatened to engulf the US economy under a dark cloud of uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is an attempt to draw lessons relevant to international financial strategy from the US sub‐prime crisis.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents reflections upon the sub‐prime derivatives market that had begun to evolve since 1993. Reviewing the situation from then until as late as of October 18, 2007, five key lessons are conceptualized. Where possible, insights on the major lessons to be drawn are rendered through simple diagrams.FindingsFive major lessons may be drawn from the sub‐prime turmoil. For easy citation, these are presented as idioms: “Do not put all bad eggs in one basket,” “Excessive demand outbalances risk and return,” “Robustness of actions for resolving a crisis,” “Banks to stay respectable as banks,” “Outcome of innovation, greed, and politics.” In conclusion, all these lessons are integrated through an overview.Practical implicationsThese lessons are explained in a manner so as to render them useful for both practitioners in the financial industry globally and a broader audience of interested readers. In particular, a thinking approach to learning is emphasized. Financial innovators are reminded of the wisdom of the ancients (eggs in a basket), and the applications of artificially intelligent forecasts of financial futures; specifically, US$ exchange rates are brought into the discussion.Originality/valueThis is an original piece of thinking on what lessons may be drawn from a major highly turbulent event: the sub‐prime crisis. It is an event that is a direct consequence of innovation in the financial markets.
Social learning in MMOG: an activity theoretical perspective
Authors: Siang Ang Chee , Zaphiris Panayiotis 
Published: May 2008

PurposeRecently, researchers have begun investigating the learning process that occurs within computer games (learning to play), as opposed to studying games that support explicit learning for educational purposes (playing to learn). With the increasing popularity of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), some research has begun to look beyond individual play and is now focusing on social play. By conducting a 30 day virtual participant observation in an MMOG, namely World of Warcraft (WoW) this paper aims to identify and provide a theoretical explanation of the process of learning that takes place in such an open‐ended virtual world.Design/methodology/approachThrough the lens of activity theory, the paper focuses its analysis on the tool, the goal, the activity of game playing and contradictions.FindingsIt was found that social learning could occur through intrinsic and extrinsic play. Intrinsic play is play oriented toward goal completion while extrinsic play is directed toward reflection and expansion of intrinsic play. WoW is designed with tools that facilitate these types of play, and therefore learning that emerges from them. Furthermore, learning involves not only the process of acquiring knowledge and skills to accomplish certain goals, but also the process of defining the goal, thus shaping the learning process.Originality/valueThe results could be used to inform game design either for social play or for social learning.
Preservice teachers’ guide for learner‐centered technology integration into instruction
Authors: Rice Marilyn P. , Johnson Daphne , Ezell Bobby , Pierczynski‐Ward Michelle 
Published: May 2008

PurposePlanning is a critical step in the process toward quality instruction and should also include consideration for what technology is appropriate for the lesson. Teacher educators must assist preservice teachers in learning this critical planning step of the instructional cycle. The purpose of this article is to present a step‐by‐step procedure to be used by preservice teachers when determining the appropriate use of technology in instruction.Design/methodology/approachVarious strategies have been used by teacher educators to facilitate preservice teachers’ learning how to integrate technology. Some of these strategies are the modeling of technology integration by university instructors, the exposure to the use of technology in the classrooms during field experience, and including technology into the curriculum. In spite of these efforts, there is evidence that some teacher educators feel that preservice teachers are still not convinced of the value of integrating technology in their lessons. This article suggests that perhaps preservice teachers are still reluctant about the benefit of integrating technology because they have not been given a process for deciding which form(s) of technology should be used for what kind of instruction.FindingsIncluded are charts with detailed descriptions, providing a step‐by‐step process for integrating technology into instruction. These charts demonstrate that the decision about what technology to use in a lesson is first based upon the needs of the learners and the material being taught.Originality/valueThis process demonstrates that technology is transparent: curriculum and the needs of learners drive the choice of technology, instead of technology being used just for technology sake.
Exploring GSM data in pervasive environments
Authors: Anderson Ian , Muller Henk 
Published: May 2008

PurposeA cell phone that behaves in a manner reflective of the current context has been a goal for the pervasive and ubiquitous research communities for a long time. This paper aims to demonstrate how two aspects of context – location and activity – can be inferred using GSM data present on standard cell phones.Design/methodology/approachA background knowledge of GSM networks is provided, followed by an assessment of the stability of signal strength levels in order to establish their usefulness in inferring aspects of context. A qualitative location system using GSM signals is presented and how to infer the current activity of the cell phone carrier is demonstrated.FindingsThe paper shows that by using the patterns of signal strength fluctuations and changes to the current serving cell and monitored neighbouring cells it is possible to distinguish between various states of movement such as walking, driving a car and remaining stationary.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on the practical aspects of deploying and managing location based services in dynamic outdoor environments.
Probabilistic self‐scheduling for coverage configuration in wireless ad‐hoc sensor networks
Authors: Lu Jun , Bao Lichun , Suda Tatsuya 
Published: May 2008

PurposeSensing coverage is a critical issue in sensor network deployments. The paper aims to propose a novel scheme to maintain the sensing coverage in sensor networks, which is termed coverage‐aware self‐scheduling (CASS).Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes a generic unifying framework to incorporate different connectivity and coverage maintenance schemes. Simulations are carried out under the framework by integrating CASS with an existing connectivity maintenance scheme ‐ the low‐energy adaptive clustering hierarchy.FindingsDifferent from the existing work on coverage maintenance, CASS probabilistically schedules sensing activities according to the sensor's contribution to the sensing coverage of the whole sensor network. CASS reduces the number of active sensors to maintain certain coverage. Besides the sensing coverage, the connectivity of the network topologies is required for the purpose of communicating among sensors to collect sensing data. Simulation results show that CASS can considerably improve the energy efficiency of sensing coverage with low communication and computation overhead.Originality/valueThe paper shows that CASS is designed to allow sensors with higher coverage contribution to have more chance to sense.
A cross‐layer design for heterogeneous routing in wireless mesh networks
Authors: Shen Shih‐Hao , Huang Yueh‐Min , Ding Jen‐Wen 
Published: May 2008

PurposeWireless mesh networks (WMNs) are regarded as a milestone in developing next‐generation wireless networks. The multi‐hop architecture of WMN makes it very attractive. However, interoperability is an inherent problem for deploying a large‐scale WMN, which may consist of various types of wireless networks. There are two intuitive approaches to solving the interoperability problem: the dual‐stack/multi‐stack approach and the naive layer‐2 broadcast approach. While the former incurs high cost in all devices, the latter creates broadcast storm in the whole network. This paper aims to propose a cross‐layer heterogeneous routing protocol for solving this problem without the adverse effects of the intuitive approaches.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual discussion and approach are employed.FindingsThe simulation results validate the efficiency of the proposed protocol.Originality/valueThe paper provides details of a method for routing selection in WMNs.
Ubiquitous content formulations for real‐time information communications
Authors: Eddie Law K.L. , So Sunny 
Published: May 2008

PurposeWith rapid advances in wireless portable devices, ubiquitous computing seems becoming a reality everyday. The paper aims to explore the possibility of offering real‐time content adaptation on set of data streams using the active pervasive network infrastructure.Design/methodology/approachWith different relative importance among the data sets, traffic control and discrimination with different operations on content adaptation are examined. Piggyback extension to users' preferences messages is proposed to smoothly enhance the active pervasive network infrastructure design.FindingsContent adaptation is achieved transparently to both clients and server systems. Real‐time delivery services overcome stochastic network situations and abruptly changing bottleneck link bandwidth problem while retaining information integrity and preserving critical data at the best of the limit of an environment.Originality/valueThe paper explores real‐time content adaptation on data streams using the active pervasive network infrastructure.
Applying cross‐cultural student teams for supporting international networking of Estonian enterprises
Authors: Elenurm Tiit 
Published: May 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the action learning experience of business students in cross‐cultural teams in the role of international business information gatekeepers for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SME) focused on international business opportunities.Design/methodology/approachAction research is applied by combining a questionnaire survey, analysis of mid‐term and final project reports, reflective team discussions and feedback from representatives of enterprises.FindingsThe cross‐cultural alignment of teamwork habits – offering leads for business contacts when presenting broader innovative ideas to SMEs, demonstrating the competence of the team when specifying the preliminary task and sharing knowledge with other teams – are essential challenges for project teams. Reflections of the teamwork process reveal the impact of some of the dimensions of cultural diversity introduced by Hofstede and Trompenaars.Research limitations/implicationsStudent teams and enterprises did not represent all key Estonian export destinations. Southern European countries and China are overrepresented in comparison with northern European countries that are culturally closer to Estonia. Further research could link action research, follow‐up surveys of SMEs involved in the projects and comparisons of SME samples from different business sectors.Practical implicationsEntrepreneurs in Baltic countries and in other new EU member states can benefit from gatekeepers that help entrepreneurs understand more advanced markets and to develop cross‐border networking with partners in other regions of Europe. A virtual community that can match students from different cultures, before and after their Erasmus exchange, in a co‐operation network for a cross‐border market study and search for contacts within enterprises is needed to facilitate more advanced cross‐border networking in the entrepreneurship‐education process.Originality/valueThe paper highlights factors supporting and inhibiting cross‐cultural synergies between action learning and e‐learning, cross‐border student exchange and knowledge sharing between SMEs and international student teams.