The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge is indexed in the CABELL'S, and ULRICH'S DIRECTORIES of Refereed Publications.   The primary goal of the journal will be to provide opportunities for business related academicians and professionals from various business related fields in a global realm to publish their paper in one source. The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge will bring together academicians and professionals from all areas related business fields and related fields to interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines. The journal will provide opportunities for publishing researcher's paper as well as providing opportunities to view other's work.  All submissions are subject to a two person blind peer review process.

The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge is published two times a year, March and September.  The e-mail: drsenguder@aol.com; Website, www.jaabc.com  Requests for subscriptions, back issues, and changes of address, as well as advertising can be made via the e-mail address above. Manuscripts and other materials of an editorial nature should be directed to the Journal's e-mail address above. Address advertising inquiries to Advertising Manager.

The Relationship Between Organizational Climate and Organizational Culture

Adela J. McMurray, Ph.D., Australia

ABSTRACT

This multi-method study explored the relationship between organizational climate and organizational culture in a newly emerging university. Organizational climate was explored through the distribution of a survey to 145 academic staff. An 88% response rate yielded 128 responses. To uncover the organizational culture, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, the Deputy Principal, 7 Deans, and 15 Centre Heads from the various faculties.  The study uncovered the ways in which organizational culture evolves and becomes intertwined with organizational climate. The data yielded new insights as to the ways in which organizational climate and culture intersect.  This has particular relevance at the sub-unit level where climate features are most positive in those faculties whose subcultures are congruent with the leadership culture, and are least positive in faculty subcultures that are incongruent with the leadership.

The Perceived Threats to the Security of Computerized Accounting Information Systems

Dr. Ahmad A. Abu-Musa, KFUPM, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The rapid change in computer technology, the wide spread of user-friendly systems and the great desire of organizations to acquire and implement up-to-date computerized systems and software have made computers much easier to use and enabled accounting tasks to be accomplished much faster and accurate than hitherto. On the other hand, this advanced technology has also created significant risks related to ensuring the security and integrity of computerized accounting information systems (CAIS). The technology, in many cases, has been developed faster than the advancement in control practices and has not been combined with similar development of the employees’ knowledge, skills, awareness, and compliance. In this paper, a general overview of the CAIS security threats will be presented, the different classifications of security threats will be outlined and causes of security violation will be briefly highlighted. Finally, the approaches and techniques of CAIS security abuse will be discussed in some details.

The High Tech Global Accounting Classroom in the 21^st Century

Dr. Dhia D. AlHashim, Dr. Siva Sankaran and Dr. Earl J. Weiss, CA

ABSTRACT

The globalization of businesses, the increasing complexities of business transactions, and advances in information technology are facilitating electronic commerce with far reaching economic, social and political implications. They are also bringing new tools to carry out the missions of educational institutions. These high tech developments are placing a continual demand on colleges and universities to update their curriculum in order to maintain the relevance and usefulness of traditional accounting curricula and the integral standards imposed by both national and international accreditation agencies.  The objective of this paper is to investigate the progress being made to incorporate technology into the accounting curriculum.

The Integration of Gender and Political Behavior into Hambrick and Mason's Upper Echelons Model of Organizations

Daun Anderson, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA

ABSTRACT

A top management team’s (TMT) characteristics are determinants of the strategic choices that it makes, and these choices determine organizational performance.  This paper integrates gender and political behavior, as mediating and moderating variables, respectively, into Hambrick and Mason’s (1984) upper echelons model of organizations.   The author offers a new model that includes gender and political behavior, based on a literature review of the impact of these variables on decision making.  She posits that women’s leadership styles result in innovation and comprehensiveness in analyzing strategic alternatives.  She also posits that the amount of political behavior within a TMT moderates the effect of its members’ characteristics on the strategic choices that they make.

Are Leadership Styles Linked to Turnover Intention: An Examination in Mainland China?

Dr. Jovan Hsu, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Dr. Jui-Chen Hsu, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan

Dr. Shaio Yan Huang, Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan

Dr. Leslie Leong, Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT

Dr. Alan M. Li, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This research investigates how leadership styles affect turnover intention based on 127 valid employee surveys from three major internet companies in Mainland China – the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  This study will be one of the few research, if any, that looks into the relationship between leadership styles and turnover in Mainland Chinese context.  Three different leadership styles – instrumental leadership, supportive leadership, and participative leadership were adopted from House and Dessler’s (1974) Path-Goal leadership model.  It was found that there was a significant negative relationship between leadership styles and turnover intention as well as a significant negative relationship between each component (instrumental leadership, supportive leadership, and participative leadership) and turnover intention.  It was also found that there were no significant differences between technical employees and non-technical employees in the relationship between leadership styles and turnover intention as well as no significant differences between managerial employees and non-managerial employees in the relationship between leadership styles and turnover intention.

Egyptian Banking Industry: Its History and Future

Dr. Ahmad Abd El-Salam Abu-Musa, Tanta University, Egypt and KFUPM, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Banks were operating in Egypt since 1842, when Mohammed Ali - the governor of Egypt - allowed some foreign banks to establish branches in Egypt. This paper introduces an overview of the historical development of the Egyptian Banking Industry (EBI) through Nasser’s nationalization regime, Sadat’s “Open Door” policy and, finally, the recent transformation and restructuring of the banking sector through adopting the privatization program. The structure of the Egyptian banking system and the future of the State-owned banks are discussed and evaluated. The development of information technology in the EBI and its impact on bank management, customer services and bank performance are also outlined. Finally, the traditional and non-traditional banking services offered by the Egyptian banking sector have been discussed.

Examining Consumer Behavior in Food Industry:  An Anthropological Descriptive Follow-Up Case Study

Julie Seel and Dr. Robert Guang Tian, Erskine College, Due West, SC

ABSTRACT

Consumer behavior is the study of human responses to products, services, and the marketing of the products and services.  The different consumers may act ethically or unethically in a given situation.  This is a follow-up study on the unethical behavior and its effect in the Erskine College Cafeteria.  It is concluded that students’ attitudes toward the unethical behavior are negative, however, they still participate in unethical behavior. Punishment is a reasonable solution to the problem.  Punishment will make the students think before they act in an improper manner.

A Market-Oriented Approach to Inculcating the Value of Academic Excellence Among Minority Students Enrolled in Public Schools

Lee R. Duffus, Ph.D., and Joe Cudjoe, Ph.D., Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL

ABSTRACT

This article examines the factors that influence academic under-performance among minority students, and presents (a) a marketing-oriented approach to inculcating the value of academic excellence among them.  The study results show that a goal- and peer-based learning system that utilizes marketing principles, emphasizes family involvement, individual performance goals, and provides tangible rewards, peer and public recognition for goal achievement will produce high levels of academic performance.  Furthermore, this peer network provides students with positive performance benchmarks and supports development of a peer culture of success characterized by strong self-efficacy among its members.

Auditing Expectations Gap: A Possible Solution

Dr. Inam Hussain, Delaware State University, Dover, DE

ABSTRACT

Auditing expectation gaps have been identified in several countries.  This research investigates the expectation gap in Oman. As in other counties, an auditing expectation gap is found in Oman also. The study looks at education as a way of reducing this gap and proposes that discussion in the introductory accounting texts would reduces this gap.  Auditing expectation gaps have been identified in several countries.  The expectation gap can be defined as “the difference between what the public and financial statement users believe that auditors are responsible for and what the auditors themselves believe their responsibilities are” (AICPA, 1993).  In the United States this expectation gap was identified in Cohen Commission’s report, which showed that the public expectation of auditors’ responsibilities was more than what they were receiving (AICPA Cohen Commission Report 1978).  Researchers in several countries have demonstrated that an auditing expectations gap does exist and that the expectation gap is not limited to USA.  In this study the Sultanate of Oman is investigated to see if an audit expectation is found and can education in the form of an auditing course reduce such a gap in expectations.  The remainder of the paper is outlined as follows: A literature review followed by the survey instrument used to obtain evidence. The subsequent sections presents the analysis of the responses and the final section presents a solution, the limitations and directions of future research.

Ethical Attitudes Among Accounting Majors:  An Empirical Study

Dr. Siva Sankaran, California State University, Northridge, CA

Dr. Tung Bui, University of Hawaii, Manoa, HI

ABSTRACT

Due to innumerable instances of ethical lapses reported in the media recently, the accounting profession has come under close scrutiny. This study investigates if there are linkages between background characteristics and ethics among individuals who are on the verge of joining the accounting profession. An instrument is developed to measure ethical attitudes and administered to a sample population of college students majoring in accounting. Results show that  i) ethics is inversely related to individual competitiveness, ii) personality types have no bearing on ethics, iii) ethics diminishes with age, and iv) women have higher ethics. The study also compares the ethics level of accounting majors with those in other business and non-business majors.

Recent Pattern of the U.S. Gender Occupational Segregation and Earnings Gap

Jongsung Kim, Ph.D., Bryant College, Smithfield, RI

ABSTRACT

Using Current Population Survey (CPS) and Census Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), this paper makes a descriptive inquiry into the changes of gender occupational segregation and the earnings gap in the U.S. labor market during the 1990s.  This paper found that throughout the decade, including a brief recession in the early 1990s, there has been an upward mobility in the occupational distribution.  More specifically, the occupational distribution has been fairly stable with a slight but consistent increase in the relatively prestigious occupational categories, and a modest but sustained decrease in the relatively less prestigious occupational categories.  This finding suggests that the more symmetric occupational distribution between male and female workers, along with upward mobility of female workers, will continue to drive the gain in female workers’ earnings - possibly resulting in the narrower gender earnings gap in the future.

The Development of a Model to Assess the Strategic Management Capability of Small- and Medium-Size Businesses

Herb de Vries and Jennifer Margaret, Christchurch College of Education, Christchurch, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

New Zealand’s small to medium-size businesses (SMEs) encompass 99% of all NZ businesses and employ over 60% of the country’s workers. Businesses with five or fewer employees alone account for a quarter of the country’s workers and constitute just under 85% of all businesses (Ministry of Economic Development, 2001). The significance that SMEs hold for our country’s economy is obvious. The implication of these facts for those of us who provide business-related courses is that we need to deliver content in our courses that supports not only the need of our larger businesses for functional and strategic specialists but also the need of smaller businesses for general strategic management capability. This article is the product of a wider study on the strategic management capability of SMEs and the part that business courses can play in supporting efforts to enhance that capability. An essential part of this study has been the formulation of a model against which the strategic management capability of an organisation can be assessed. This work also has required the development of an instrument that would allow us to gather data that could be plotted on that model. The article describes the development of both the model and the data collection instrument and also reports on a study designed to pilot the instrument.

Classroom Management of Project Management:

A Review of Approaches to Managing a Student’s Information System Project Development

Nicky Ellen and John West, School of Business, Christchurch College of Education, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract

What are the most effective ways of delivering an applied course in the application of the Systems Development Life Cycle that gives students a taste of real-life project management issues whilst maintaining assessment integrity and lecturer sanity? This paper discusses different approaches, used by two lecturers teaching Systems Analysis and Design in the School of Business at the Christchurch College of Education, for managing a real-life project and student group work and assessment.

Cheating – What is It and Why do It: A Study in New Zealand Tertiary Institutions of the Perceptions and Justifications for Academic Dishonesty

Kelly de Lambert, Nicky Ellen and Louise Taylor, Christchurch College of Education, Christchurch, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

How do different groups of people perceive academic dishonesty and what are the reasons they give for undertaking academically dishonest acts? It is posited that students and lecturing staff have different perceptions of what constitutes academic dishonesty and the seriousness of the acts. This paper also presents the findings of investigations into the reasons given for academic dishonesty and rates of prevalence within New Zealand tertiary institutions. In this age of increased pressure for academic success and the endeavour for higher qualifications, academic dishonesty has become a much-discussed subject amongst tertiary teaching staff. Not only is it of interest to lecturing staff in tertiary institutions, but also to employers of graduates, and to students who may view the exploits of their academically dishonest peers as injurious to their own hard-earned success.  The research undertaken draws on literature and other published studies, but is primarily concerned with the tertiary sector in New Zealand, specifically universities and polytechnics, and encompasses a variety of academic disciplines.

Leadership Style and its Relationship to Individual Differences in Personality, Moral Orientation and Ethical Judgment – A Ph.D. Proposal

Jennifer Margaret, School of Business, Christchurch College of Education, Christchurch, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study is to search for different ethical judgements of different groups of managerial professional participants and to see if these judgements vary according to their type of leadership style, personality and personal moral orientation.  The participants are New Zealand and Australian managerial professionals from these countries education and business sectors.  The central themes are: (1)  At the behavioural level - Linking the most recent leadership theory ( to the notions of: organisational virtues; the applied ethics notion of moral intensity and; the moral psychology notion of personal moral orientation.  (2)  At the mental representation level - Exploring the underlying mechanisms of mental representation of leaders' moral orientation and possible consequences of differential covert encoding for: ethical decision processes and; leadership behaviour.  The following sections address these themes separately, discussing the theoretical rationale and previous empirical research concerning the proposed relationships, briefly defining each variable in the proposed research and, concludes with hypotheses and methodology for each.

Debt and Taxes, and Tax Deferral

Dr. Terrance Jalbert and Dr. Jeffrey Decker, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI

ABSTRACT

In this paper we examine the conventional wisdom that ten years of tax deferral is almost as good as exemption.  Examining a corporation that invests in a single risk free bond we demonstrate that the conventional wisdom regarding tax deferral does not hold.  We go on to demonstrate that deferral is not as good as exemption even when the deferral time is extended to 20 or 30 years.  Based on these findings we argue that the equilibrium quantity of bonds outstanding in the economy will be higher than that suggested by Miller (1977).  This work has important implications for personal and corporate investment decisions, capital structure analysis as well as empirical studies that rely on work of Miller (1977) to identify marginal tax rates.

Empirical Analysis of Determinants of Geographic Differentials in the Bank Failure Rate in the U.S.:

A Heteroskedastic-Tobit Estimation

Richard J. Cebula, Ph.D., Richard D. McGrath, Ph.D. and William O. Perry, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, GA

ABSTRACT

Using the Heteroskedastic-TOBIT model to deal with both censored data and a heteroskedasticity problem, this study address determinants of interstate differentials in bank closing rates over the 1982-91 period. It is found that the bank closing rate in a state is an increasing function of the cost of deposits, the percentage of state employment derived from oil and natural gas extraction, and the existence of unit banking regulations, while being a decreasing function of housing price inflation in the state, the average percentage growth rate of the GSP in the state, and the percentage of banks in the state having federal charters.  (JEL codes: G2,  G20, G21)

Strategic Market Planning in Romania: Implications for Practitioners

Victoria Seitz, Ph.D., and Nabil Y. Razzouk, Ph.D., California State University, San Bernardino, CA

ABSTRACT

Romania’s recent invitation to NATO and an American president’s visit symbolize the growing potential of this former Communist country.  Although globalization of western brands is prevalent in Romania, there is evidence of a lack of strategic planning for these brands that would aid in developing brand loyalty in the Romanian market.  The authors identify strategic guidelines for consideration of the Romanian market as well as other Central and Eastern European nations that will enhance brand loyalty through its life cycle.

Taxonomy and Remedy of Work Hazards Associated with Office Information Systems

Dr. Haidar M. Fraihat, King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The use of information technology in the workplace implicates both positive and negative impacts on knowledge workers, depending on the manner in which the technology is utilized. Potential negative impacts include deskilling, repetition of work tasks, excessive monitoring of workers, as well as a spectrum of potential health hazards and job injuries.  Through the use of interviews and investigating selected organizational and medical archives, the paper revealed that OIS-related job hazards are different from other job hazards. Mental, emotional, sociological and psychological harms are more related to OIS-caused job hazards and that combating these problems requires a collective effort of all stakeholders determined by the paper.  The paper argues that several methods could be used to combat OIS-related hazards. They include awareness creation, training, following proper ergonomics procedures and standards, increasing R&D spending by IT industry, and modernizing government legislations. In addition, the paper provided a set of activities knowledge workers need to undertake in order to mitigate this modern-day organizational predicament.

The Determinants of Brand Loyalty

Palto Ranjan Datta, MSC, MBA, MABE, City Business College, London, UK

ABSTRACT

The consumer goods market in the United Kingdom is highly competitive. Along with the major brands, own label brands also have a considerable market share. Even small changes in the market share can have a significant financial impact on company sales. In the face of such competition having brand loyal customers not only ensure sales, but also reduce marketing costs. To create brand loyal customers and retain them, it is essential to have knowledge of the major factors that influence brand loyalty amongst customers in the consumer goods market in the United Kingdom.  Exploratory research was conducted to investigate the major factors that influence the consumers brand loyalty in the consumer goods market in UK. For the purpose of the research apart from secondary data analysis, a pilot study was also conducted. During this pilot study primary data was collected from in-depth interviews and focus group interviews. The research revealed that the major factors that influence brand loyalty in the UK consumer goods market are the product performance, the satisfaction of customers, price, habit, the history of brand usage, brand names, and the level of risk and involvement of the consumer. Further research can be conducted on how each of these factors can influence a consumer’s loyalty towards a brand of a particular product category.

Uncertainty and Learning in University-Industry Knowledge Transfer Projects

Abdelkader Daghfous, Ph.D., American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, U.A.E

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of an exploratory case study that investigates the effects of learning activities and uncertainty, perceived by the recipient firm, on the benefits to that firm from university-industry knowledge transfer projects. The goal of this case study is to explore such relationships using data from a system development project.  While successful knowledge transfer indicates a high level of tangible and intangible benefits to the firm, uncertainty is measured in terms of the perceived lack of technical and organizational knowledge. Although the nature of this study is exploratory, the results obtained provide valuable insights for future empirical research, as well as useful prescriptions for more successful knowledge transfer projects.

Leadership Simplified: Abandoning the Einsteinian “Unified Field Theory” Approach

Dr. William Burmeister, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, PA

ABSTRACT

“Leadership Simplified: Abandoning the Einsteinian ‘Unified Field Theory’ Approach” breaks with the latest integrative models of leadership; embracing instead the axiom of Occam’s razor. This philosophical precept, firm in the belief that the fewer assumptions an explanation depends on - the better it is; suggests that leadership can be best understood by the simplest and most obvious criteria: the type of power employed.

Examining a Singapore Bank’s Competitive Superiority Using Importance-Performance Analysis

Alvin Y. C. Yeo, Doctoral Candidate, University of Western Australia, Leicester, Australia

Abstract

In increasingly liberalized financial environments, financial service providers are recognizing the importance of understanding consumers’ bank selection and product purchase decision. To this end, this paper diagnoses the competitive superiority of a major local bank in Singapore using the Importance-Performance matrix. Insights on broadly, bank selection criteria and specifically, housing loan selection criteria are obtained based on survey findings from 187 banking customers. Implications of these findings for financial service providers are also discussed.

Teaching Outside the Box:

A Look at the Use of Some Nontraditional Teaching Models in Accounting Principles Courses

Dr. Gary Saunders, Marshall University, Huntington, WV

Dr. Jill Ellen R. Christopher, Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH

ABSTRACT

Paradigms for teaching accounting have been evolving at a fairly rapid pace in the last decade.  The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) has been a leader in calling for changes.  They, and others in the accounting profession, have issued statements addressing the structure and objectives of accounting principles courses.  These statements have stressed the need for innovative teaching approaches and the importance of incorporating active learning and team learning (group work) into accounting principles courses. Conventional wisdom might suggest that as the size of accounting principles classes increases, there will be less likelihood that instructors will use innovative teaching methods, and that students will have fewer opportunities to experience active learning and team learning projects.  In order to determine relationships between accounting principles class sizes and the relative level of programs’ use of nontraditional teaching models, a questionnaire relating to the teaching of accounting principles was sent to 325 chairpersons of accounting departments in the U.S. Results indicate that the majority of schools use team learning and computer assignments, but that they do not require students to attend laboratory – i.e., active learning – sessions, or to complete simulation projects.  Accordingly, the results suggest that while most schools are doing a good job of addressing the need for computer work and group work in accounting principles courses, more effort should be made to include active learning activities in these courses.

Testing the Consistency of New Zealand SME Financial Ratios Across Industry Groups

Dr. Stuart Locke and Dr. Frank Scrimgeour, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

In December 2002 the Ministry for Economic Development, in New Zealand (NZ), commenced an online benchmarking service for Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs).  This is part of a series of government initiatives to improve the economic performance of the sector.  As financial ratios play an important part in financial benchmarking an empirical test of the distributional properties of financial ratios for NZ SMEs was undertaken.  This study samples 3,811 NZ SMEs, providing a wide cross-section of industry types.  The results found that very few financial ratios were normally distributed and that comparisons across industries, and within most industry groupings, are likely not to be statistically valid.  The study was replicated on two separate years of data and the findings were similar.

An Empirical Study About the Use of the ABC/ABM Models by some of the Fortune 500 Largest Industrial Corporations in the USA

Raj Kiani, Ph.D., and M. Sangeladji, Ph.D., California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA

ABSTRACT

Activity-Based Costing and Activity-Based Management models have received considerable attention by both academicians and practitioners in the past 20 years. However, the attributes and shortcomings of the models have not been yet adequately tested. The main purposes of this research were (1) to determine the level of the usefulness of the models in practice, (2) to understand the attributes and obstacles of the models in the real-world environment, (3) and to recommend whether the concepts should be included in the business school curriculum. To accomplish these objectives, a survey questionnaire comprising 21 questions was sent to controllers/managers of all 500's largest industrial corporations in the U.S.A. From 500 questionnaires, 85 were found usable for analysis. Out of 85 companies, 41 did not use ABC/ABM models in their operations and the 44 remaining companies had used the models at various level. Analysis of the responses received from the 44 companies revealed useful information about benefits, attributes, and obstacles regarding the adoption and implementation of the ABC/ABM models. The major obstacles, among others, included inadequacy of management support, unwillingness of people to change, shortage of competent personnel, and complexity in process design. The conclusions reached in this research were (1) since 44 out of the 85 participated companies (over 51%) had used the models, colleges and universities should continue to include these models in their curricula and (2) because only 8 out of 44 companies had used the models over 5 years, further empirical research and studies are needed to evaluate the degree of usefulness of the models after an extended application.

Competing Size Theories and Audit Lag: Evidence from Mutual Fund Audits

Dr. Charles P. Cullinan, Bryant College, Smithfield, RI

ABSTRACT

The existing audit lag literature identifies three theories for why client size may affect audit fees: (1) that larger clients have shorter audit lags because they can prepare their financial statements more quickly (the client preparation theory), (2) that larger clients have shorter lags because auditors are more willing to complete the audit quickly to retain larger clients (the client service theory), and (3) that larger clients have more transactions to audit, resulting in longer audit delays (the transactions theory). Mutual funds are required to prepare financial statements daily, eliminating any delay caused by the client’s financial statement preparation time. There are also measures of fund transactions that are separate from traditional measure of client size, allowing for an discrete examination of the client service and transactions theory. Results of this study provide mixed support for the client service theory in finding that fund assets was negatively related to audit lag, while other measures of the potential incentives for client service were not significantly related to audit lags. Results of the study also provide mixed support the transactions theory.

An Empirical Analysis of Where Firms Choose to Emit and Corresponding Firm Performance

Dr. Jeffrey L. Decker and Dr. Terrance Jalbert, University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the firm-level, state and federal characteristics that explain pollution emissions during 1988-1996. Differences in pollution approach between different types of firms and the states in which they operate provide an unique research setting to investigate how firms respond to differing levels of state environmental regulation, what effect a change in regime at the federal level has on firm pollution control, how firms with favorable environmental reputations compare to firms with unfavorable environmental reputations and what firm characteristics are related to environmental performance. The results indicate that government regulation influences where firms choose to emit. The results further indicate the firms that emit more of their emissions in pro-industry states have organizational slack available to meet the increase in federal environmental regulations. Moreover, firms with favorable environmental reputations did not reduce emissions significantly more than firms with unfavorable environmental reputations.

American Business Objective: An Alternative Approach

Dr. Ioannis N. Kallianiotis, University of Scranton, Scranton, PA

ABSTRACT

This mostly general, theoretical, and philosophical work tries to point out some of the existing problems in our corporations (American Businesses) and to suggest a few long-term remedies. The social objective of the corporate firm is emphasized, subject to moral, ethical, and just social constraints. Also, a preliminary attempt of business valuation, risk, and return has been undertaken. At the end, a lot of discussion is made for corporate governance, control, and regulations and a few suggestions, by using an alternative approach, are given.

Education and Tax Policies for Economic Development: Taiwan’s Model for Developing Nations

Raymond S. Chen, Ph.D, CPA, and James S. H. Chiu, Ph.D., CPA, CMA, California State University Northridge, Northridge, CA

ABSTRACT

Economic development in Taiwan over the past forty years has been truly miraculous.  Since 1960, per capita gross national product increased from US$154 to over US$14,216, which translates to an increase of over 192 times.  Worldwide, Taiwan has become the nineteenth largest economy and fifteenth largest trading economy.  Although there are many factors attributing to the economic growth in Taiwan, this paper identifies the most significant policies that assisted in propelling Taiwan’s prosperity.  These policies consist of both educational policies that fostered human resource development and tax policies that further stimulated economic development.  In addition to what has already been done by the government of Taiwan, this paper also addresses other governmental strategies to further promote economic and social development.  Many developing nations have devoted significant efforts in formulating strategies to foster their countries’ economic development.  These developing nations usually focus on highly developed nations, such as the United States of America, for reference in modeling their strategies.  This paper presents Taiwan for consideration by developing nations as an example of strategic planning for economic development.

Analyzing the Regime-Switching Behaviors on Exchange Rates and an New Test for PPP

-An Empirical Study on the Exchange Rates of Two Major Industrial and Four Asian Developing Country Currencies

Dr. Ming-Yuan Leon Li, National Chi Nan University, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

This study adopts Hamilton’s Markov-switching model (hereafter MS model) to examine and compare the regime-switching behaviors of exchange rates of two major industrialized country currencies including GBP and JPY and four Asian developing country currencies including NTD, KOW, THB and PHP. An alternative innovation of this paper is to establish a specification that incorporates the MS model and purchasing power parity (hereafter, PPP) and examine whether the PPP has marginal predictive power for the exchange rate returns after accounting for state-dependent switching.  Our empirical findings are consistent with the following notions. First, the regime-switching behavior are much (less) statistical significant in the exchange rates of developing country currencies (Industrial country currencies). Second, the finding provides the evidence that PPP is pronounced in the high- (low-) volatility regime of industrial country currencies (developing country currencies). Third, the switching in variance with asymmetric PPP established by our paper outperforms the competing models in statistical and forecasting performances.

Marketing Research and Information Systems: The Unholy Separation of the Siamese Twins

Dr. Z. S. Demirdjian, California State University, Long Beach, CA

ABSTRACT

With the advent of the personal computer, there has been an explosion in the information technology. Against the backdrop of increasing demand for literacy in information systems since 1970s, universities began to offer information systems (IS), also known as   management information system (MIS), courses usually in a separate departments, carrying the same name as IS or MIS.  Almost all of the courses offered in the IS department are designed to process, store, and retrieve secondary data.  In the age of information, management needs primary data to keep abreast of the constantly changing competitive environment.  Myopically, the IS department does not require a course in research methodology to prepare the IS student to generate primary data and be able to appraise data produced by others.  On the other hand, marketing department does offer such a course titled Marketing Research.   When a student majoring in  IS  graduates, he or she would lack the conceptual knowledge and the requisite skills in either conducting a systematic and objective research study to generate information  for aid in making business decisions or in evaluating the accuracy of data produced by someone else.   The focus of this paper is to demonstrate by means of a model that Marketing Research and IS are congenitally joined together like the Siamese twins whose unholy separation would shortchange the IS student.  Additionally, recommendations are made to correct the shortsightedness and the deficiency of the IS curriculum in order to prepare students for the real world, who will be well rounded in dealing with both secondary and primary data management and usage.

Income Squeeze on New Zealand Universities

Dr. W. Guy Scott, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

New Zealand universities receive a government grant determined by the number of full-time equivalent students (EFTS) enrolled in programmes of study that qualify for Ministry of Education funding.  Over the last twenty years, real Ministry of Education subsidy per EFTS fell by 36% or at an annual average reduction of 2.3% and, numbers of EFTS per academic staff member grew from 12.5 to 19.0.  The proportion of income from the Ministry of Education fell from 73% in 1991 to 46% in 1999, the shortfall being met by higher student fees and revenue from entrepreneurial activity.  As a nation, New Zealand spent US$3,192 less per EFTS than did Australia in 1995.  If present policy settings are unchanged, numbers of students per staff member will continue to increase, and universities may have trouble maintaining the quality of teaching and research.  Rising fees payable out of pocket by students will increase the difficulties for those from lower socio-economic families to access university education.  Failure to address problems of funding, access and retention of a young skilled workforce will reduce New Zealand’s ability to compete internationally. Key words: Education, university, funding, public policy, economics.

Characteristics, Performance and Prospects of Emerging Stock Market of Oman: Facts & Figures for International Investors

Mazhar M. Islam, Ph.D., Sultan Qaboos University, Sultanate of Oman

ABSTRACT

The Emerging Stock market of Oman known as Market Muscat Securities Market (MSM) was established in 1989 with 71 joint stock companies and an equity capital of about US$ 700 million. There has been an  explosive growth of the MSM (504 points) in 1997 and  in first half of 1998 due to bank loans, borrowing from trust account, the liberalization of income tax laws, record amount of profits earned by companies,  stable oil price, and the government’s plan for  economic reforms. However, in September 1998 the MSM Index dropped to 280 points leading to the crash of the market.  The market observers view this crash mainly because of the high speculative activity fueled by lack of transparency in the market, investors’ inability to separate the market price of a share from its intrinsic value, high rates of interest  with low dividends, sharp decline in oil price,  the government  fiscal deficit, lack of proper monitoring & supervising systems; and   the absence of  required institutional infrastructure facilities. The government subsequent   reform measures although stimulated the market transactions for a while, however the MSM has yet not recovered from its 1998 crash. It has been argued here that the prospects  of the market depends on how quickly the government  authority  addresses some important issues in order to bring back the investors’ confidence. The investors need accurate information from the professional analysts regarding  companies’ financial strengths with long-term prospects.

U.S. Treasury Inflation Protection Bonds

Dr. Malek Lashgari, CFA, University of Hartford, West Harford, CT

ABSTRACT

The issuance of U.S. Treasury inflation indexed bond was a step forward in the pursuit of capital market completeness. In this manner, investors would be able to maintain their real purchasing power in any future states of inflation. These bonds are suitable and at times superior to regular bonds. For example, U.S. Treasury inflation indexed bonds would be an ideal investment in a defined benefit pension plan investment portfolio in which wages reflect inflation. Some features of these bonds though appear to be of concern. A portion of these bonds cash flows are accrued over time and paid at maturity. However, taxes are due on an annual basis causing a shortfall in periodic cash flows. Furthermore, the adjustment process to inflation is theoretically incomplete. This incomplete matching to inflation by U.S. Treasury inflation indexed bonds, however, provides an opportunity for introducing a derivative contract that may be used to modify the inflation adjustment process.

The Effects of Organizational Culture on Conflict Resolution in Marketing

Dr. Sungwoo Jung, State University of New York at Oneonta, Oneonta, NY

ABSTARCT

Most of the current research on conflict management, especially in marketing, does not consider the differences of each party’s organizational cultures. Resolving the conflict between manufacturers and suppliers becomes important in order to build long-term relationship. Four different types of conflict resolution approaches (Dant and Schul 1992) are hypothesized depending on the organizational cultures (Cameron and Freeman 1991) of manufacturers and suppliers. In spite of the importance of organizational culture, it has not been reflected in scholarly studies (detailed overviews are found in Ashkanasy, Wilderom, and Peterson 2000). This lack of development may be attributed to the relatively greater attention given to consumer than to organizational issues in marketing in general (Ruekert, Walker, and Roering 1985). Therefore, it became necessary to pay attention to organizational culture along with structural explanations for managerial effectiveness (Parasuraman and Deshpande 1984). Weitz, Sujan, and Sujan (1986) is one of the studies to include organizational culture into a model of selling effectiveness.  In other way, it is believed that effective management control of marketing channels is vital to marketing planning (Lederhaus 1984).

Safe Banking

Dr. Sankar Acharya, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL

ABSTRACT

Capital market gurus plead for universal banking with theoretically sound but practically fragile firewalls around special purpose vehicles (SVC) like financial conduits and trusts, while regulators continue to noose banks and massive risks pile on taxpayers due to credit derivatives.  Fragile firewalls destroyed Enron and MCI-WorldCom and may implode banks. The solution proposed here is to create enough safe banks to serve panic-prone depositors, and to let the rest of the banks operate as universal banks without regulation.  Safe banks invest exclusively in government securities, accept no more deposits than liquidation value of assets, and issue no liabilities (like debt) except common stock and preferred stock.

Impact of a U.S. Living Wage on Food Prices, Obesity, and Healthcare Costs: A Discussion

Dr. Michael F. Williams, University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas

ABSTRACT

A national U.S. living wage may reduce aggregate healthcare expenditures in the United States.  This connection hinges on the following four propositions:  1.  A higher minimum wage will cause higher food prices. 2. Higher food prices will cause reduced food consumption. 3. Reduced food consumption will cause reduced obesity. 4. Reduced obesity will cause reduced healthcare costs. We summarize research by others that supports each of these four propositions.  We then provide a preliminary estimate of the reduction in healthcare costs resulting from a living wage of $8.90—a reduction in healthcare costs totaling $1.82 billion.  We suggest an avenue of research that may provide a more accurate measure of the size of this reduction.  Proponents of a living wage in the United States argue that the minimum wage should be raised sufficiently high so that a worker can support herself and her family at a living standard that exceeds the poverty level.(1)  Analysis of the effects of such a living wage (and of a higher minimum wage in general) often centers on its effects on employment (and unemployment); an overlooked possibility is that a living wage may reduce aggregate healthcare expenditures. This possibility arises as a result of these four related propositions:

A National Survey of Student Investment Clubs in Taiwan: The Use of Appreciative Inquiry Approach

Dr. Bryan H. Chen, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

A student investment club enables student members to gain real-world experience managing their own money in the securities market. There are challenges that a successful student investment club has to face and solve, including limited capital, continual turnover of membership, inactive members, and consistency of record keeping, reporting requirements, potentially high transactions costs, and liability concerns. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect the club's operation via the use of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach. The findings reported in this study will help guide student investment clubs in developing sound strategies to run a student investment club.

Globalization, the Knowledge Economy, and Competitiveness: A Business Intelligence Framework for the Development SMES

Louis Raymond, Ph.D., Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, Qc, Canada

ABSTRACT

Globalization, the internationalization of markets, the knowledge economy, and e-business are among the interrelated phenomena whose emergence poses new challenges for the survival and adaptation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For the various public and private organizations such as government agencies, universities and consulting firms that constitute the development infrastructure for these enterprises, the issue that thus arises is the elaboration of policies, programs, and services that respond to the new competitive exigencies of SMEs in the changing business environment. Hence, it is essential to detect trends and understand strategic issues that stem from a global knowledge economy, that is, through business intelligence activities by which the economic, technological, and social environments of SMEs are scanned. This article proposes a conceptual and operational framework to this end. For analytical and operational purposes, these trends are grouped under four business intelligence themes as follows: a) the transformed management of the value chain and new organizational forms, b) information technologies, information systems, and e-business as sources of added value and vectors of competitiveness, c) the opportunity to develop new markets in a context of internationalization, and d) the development of human and intellectual capital, diffuse innovation, and organizational learning.

A Field Research on the Effects of MIS on Organizational Restructuring

Dr. Cemal Zehir and Dr. Halit Keskin, Gebze Institute of Technology, Istanbul, Turkey 

ABSTRACT

In this paper, the changes that resulted from the adaptation of the developments in information technologies in reconstructing companies have been tried to be researched. In this context, the relations between the enterprises’ goal to adapt their organisation structure, the activities to make the use of MIS widespread during this process, the influences of MIS on in-company activity and processes and the objects of improving the financial performance and competitive ability by using MIS which has been developed by using information technologies have been researched. This paper also includes a field research carried on the first 250 manufacturing companies. As a result of this research findings that may contribute to the theoretic knowledge’s have been found.

A Comparison of Leading Central Banks and Their Effectiveness Using the Discount Rate as a Monetary Policy Tool

Samuel B. Bulmash, Ph.D., University of South Florida, Tampa, FL

ABSTRACT

The actions or inactions of a central bank can have profound effects on the citizens of a given country that has a central bank, and impact their standard of living as measured by changes in gross domestic product, unemployment, and inflation.  How do leading central banks of the world compare in their organization, powers, and goals; and in their ability to affect macroeconomic indicators?  This study examines the impact of Discount Rate Policy by the central banks of three leading industrialized nations, one from each of the world’s major economic regions: The United States’ Federal Reserve System, United Kingdom’s Bank of England, and Japan’s Bank of Japan.  This paper begins by describing the basic organizational structure, monetary policy tools, supervisory and regulatory powers, payment system, and various services of each central bank.  Table I below summarizes several key aspects of each bank, and Section I provides essential details.  With this insight and background, we formulate our hypothesis, stated in Section II, asserting which one of the aforementioned central banks exhibits the most power and influence over its nation’s economy by using a key monetary tool, the discount rate.  Next, in Sections III and IV, we test our hypothesis by statistically deriving correlations between each bank’s discount rate and various macroeconomic indicators of each economy, and comparing these correlations. 

Partners, Resources, and Management Mechanisms of Inter-organizational Collaborative Ties in Non-profit Organizations

Tzu-Ju Peng Ph. D., Providence University, Taichug, Taiwan

Postdoctoral Fellow, J. L. Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, IL

ABSTRACT

Relevant theories of cooperative strategy primarily apply to the private sector rather than to non-profit organizations (NPOs). The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships among different partners, resources inputs, and management mechanisms adopted by each inter-organizational collaborative tie. Derived from resource-based view, four questions were proposed and were further examined via both qualitative and quantitative methods. Empirical results demonstrate that: First, within the inter-organizational collaborative ties in NPOs, the resources provided by private business are not different from those provided by public institutions. As well, the resources available to private business are not different from those available to public institutions. Second, management mechanisms adopted by NPOs did not significantly vary with different partners but significantly vary with different resources that contributed to the inter-organizational cooperative relationship.

Agency Cost Control

Dr. Richard H. Fosberg, University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, TX

Dr. Sidney Rosenberg, University of North Florida, FL

ABSTRACT

In this study, we seek to ascertain whether certain mechanisms found by Ang, Cole, and Lin (2000) to control agency costs in small firms are also effective in controlling large firm agency costs.  We also investigate whether another agency cost control mechanism not tested by Ang, Cole, and Lin, a dual leadership structure, is also effective in controlling agency costs.  Our analysis indicates that a dual leadership structure, greater share ownership by the firm's CEO, and greater share ownership by blockholders are all effective in controlling a firm's agency costs.  These mechanisms reduce the selling, general, and administrative expense to sales ratio of our sample firms and/or induce better asset utilization by the firm (as measured by the firm's sales to total assets ratio).  There is some weak evidence that greater share ownership by other officers and directors may also be useful in controlling a firm's agency costs. 

Determinants of on-Board Retail Expenditures in the Cruise Industry

Elise Prosser, Ph.D., University of San Diego, San Diego, CA

Birgit Leisen, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, WI

ABSTRACT

The cruise vacation industry is projected to be almost $100 billion by 2005 as 9 million passengers go aboard each year. Faced with increased competition and shaved profit margins, cruise vacation marketers increasingly rely upon on-board tourist expenditures to provide supplemental revenue. Hence, identifying determinants of retail expenditures in on-board shops is critical. First, the authors propose hypotheses relating average daily on-board retail expenditures per person to vessel, voyage, and tourist characteristics: number of passengers, daily retail operating hours of the shops, type of ship, number of stores on-board, travel season, cruise destination, length of cruise, and average age of passengers. Next, regression analysis is employed to test the hypotheses and to determine the significance of each variable. Managerial implications and future research are discussed.

Antidumping War Against China and the Effects of WTO Membership

Dr. Nadeem M. Firoz, Montclair State University, Upper Montclair, NJ

Dr. Ahmed S. Maghrabi, Arabia Consulting Group

ABSTRACT

The first dumping lawsuit against China came in 1979 when Europeans accused Chinese saccharin manufacturers of dumping.  Since them, China has become a common target of dumping charges for most of its major trading partners.  More than 422 cases have been brought up against Chinese enterprises involving more than $10 billion worth of products.  This represents only a small portion of total exports of China, but the negative effect to some Chinese industry has been devastating.  Chinese TV manufacturers know for experience how dumping charges can bring down one of the strongest industries in China.  With a 44.6 percent antidumping tax on color TV from China, the European market has completely closed its door to Chinese TV manufacturers.  One of the major reasons for these attacks is the non-market economy status that China has.  Contrary to a market economy, in a non-market economy the state has a major influence in production cost and the final price of goods.  The government provides some companies with subsidies and tax benefits that put foreign competitors in a disadvantage.  Some countries like the United States claim that because of this situation China is able to sell its products at prices well below normal value.  This is considered dumping and it is condemned by the World Trade Organization (WTO). 

Computer Access and Utilization Patterns Among Older People

Dr. Mustafa Kamal, Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, Missouri

Dr. Godavari D. Patil, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether computer technology has significant influence on older people’s adoption of computers in day-to-day life. A total of five hypothesis and five sub-hypothesis are tested. We find that that persons with higher educational level generally owned computers at a higher proportion than did those with less education, that there is no relationship between the educational level of the respondents and the means used for learning computer skills, that there is direct correlation between income and purchase of computers, that there is not much difference among the respondents regarding their responses about making a career in computer field, and that as the age of the respondents increase, the use of computers decreases. We also found that most of the respondents had access to computers and used computers and the Internet profusely, especially as a means of communication to keep in touch with family and friends and to gain access to information on various aspects of life.

The Impact of Globalization on Cultural Industries in United Arab Emirates

Mohammad Naim Chaker, Ph.D., University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

INTRODUCTION

Cultural industries have come to be included in a distinct sector where the creation, production and marketing of goods and services are combined. Cultural industries include media organizations, film production, audiovisual sphere, the print output, multimedia sector, architecture, performing arts, plastic arts, and cultural tourism (UNESCO, 2000). Cultural industries produce consumer goods that convey lifestyles and values with both an informative and entertainment function, and cultural services that cover intangible activities such as the promotion of the performing arts, films, and values.  According to the UNESCO report (2000), between 1980 and 1998, international trade in cultural goods increased five-fold. Interestingly, in 1990, 55 percent of world’s exports of cultural goods involved just 4 industrial countries (Japan, USA, Germany and the UK). In the same year, western countries such as France, UK, Germany and the US accounted for 47 percent of global import-flows of cultural goods. In recent years, China has emerged as a major player in the international trade arena, exporting a very large number of cultural products. 

Restructuring Japan's Banking Sector to Avoid a Financial Crisis

Dr. Jennifer Foo, Stetson University, Deland, FL

ABSTRACT

Japan's banking sector is in a crisis despite the denial of the Japanese authorities.  When banking problems are unresolved the financial system distorts the allocation of credit and undermines the intermediation functions leading to economic imbalances.  Political paralysis and indecisions have characterized the Japanese policy makers in resolving the banking crisis.  The results are huge government spending and unprecedented budget deficits while income growth continues to shrink as the economy deflates.  This paper examines the causes of the decade-long Japanese banking crisis and the policy and restructuring efforts.  Lastly, I suggest policy recommendations to avoid a full-blown financial crisis. 

Attitudes Toward the Management of International Assignments- A Comparative Study

Lan-Ying Huang, The Overseas Chinese Institute of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The era of hypercompetition (D’Aveni, 1995) has stimulated most international organizations to pay increased attention to cost reduction and cost effectiveness for employees transferring between countries. This article summarizes practices espoused by most researchers and commentators on the management of international assignments. Attitudes on practices of international assignments were tested through a survey of employees and executives in the international firms.  The survey results reveal that, between two groups, there are no different attitude on pre-assignment training, continuing support, assignment for younger assignees, opportunities for career advancement, and a repatriation agreement, while only the duration of assignment shows significant difference.

Use of Value Line Investment Survey in Teaching Investments

Dr. Bryan H. Chen, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

The Value Line Investment Survey is one of the most famous and widely used sources of financial database and investment information for teaching finance students in the United States. However, this database is pretty new to Taiwanese students. This paper describes the experience of using Value Line Investment Survey database in the teaching of investments in a large College of Technology and Vocational Education in Taiwan. The selected university is the only university that owns Value Line Investment Survey database in Taiwan so far. The purpose of this exploratory study was to assess the student perceptions to this innovative approach in teaching of investments at this university. The findings of this preliminary investigation seem to felt that Value Line Investment Survey database should be made an integral part of instruction in the finance curriculum in Taiwan.

The Challenges of Teaching Statistics in the Current Technology Environment

William S. Pan, Ph.D., University of New Haven, West Haven, CT

INTRODUCTION

In today’s constantly changing world, as everything else, teaching and learning are also changing. The teaching methods, the technology even the student’s learning habits are changing. One can therefore predict that the most effective teaching method used to make the students learn better and that the technology which enables the content information easily accessible to student will certainly become more popular and widely adapted over time. In the academic world, computer technology is rapidly changing the ways Statistics courses are taught. Most statistics courses now have computer exercises. As professors and scholars, we have to face this new technology challenge. We have to manage this dynamic changing and evolving new environment. In our paper, the strengths of the Web-based education and the pitfalls of teaching an online statistical course will be discussed.

Determinants of Municipal Bond Closed-End Fund Discounts

Dr. Ronald J. Woan and Dr. Germain Kline, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study is to investigate the potential determinants of cross-sectional variation of fund discounts/premiums for the two largest closed-end fund types: national and single-state municipal bond closed-end funds. Some researchers argued that municipal bond closed-end funds, due to their tax-exempt status and the resulting short-sale restrictions, should generally be selling at premiums. However, our current samples show that the overwhelming majority of municipal bond closed-end funds were consistently selling at discounts, with the average discounts highly significantly different from zero. However, the average discounts are lower than the average discounts for non-municipal closed-end funds reported in the literature. Our current research results also indicate that the potential determinants of fund discounts/premiums consist of both accounting data and market data. There is striking similarity of the behavior of fund discounts among equity, non-municipal and municipal bond funds. This similarity is at once surprising and encouraging, and could potentially facilitate future theoretical developments.

Effects of Introducing International Accounting Standards on Amman Stock Exchange

Mufeed Rawashdeh, Ph.D., Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the effects of introducing international accounting standards on Amman stock exchange. Using a sample of 18 adopting firms and 33 non-adopting firms from Amman Stock Exchange over the period 1989-1990, the study regresses the cumulative abnormal return (CAR) of the year of adoption on Unexpected earnings, Unexpected changes in debt ratio, and an indicator variable (1=adopter and 0=non-adopter). The results of the study reveal a significant impact on stock prices of adopting firms compared to non