Working Papers

According to McGuire and McGuire’s (1991) “rationalization postulate,” people should adjust their judgments of the desirability of a future event to make them congruent with its perceived likelihood. In a political survey administered to 288…

When countries open their stock markets to foreign investors, firms that become eligible for purchase by foreigners (investible) are repriced according to the difference in the covariance of their returns with the local and world market. An…

This paper considers the question of tacit collusion in repeated auctions with independent private values and with limited public monitoring. McAfee and McMillan show that the extent of collusion is tied to availability of transfers. Monetary…

This paper examines the effects on the informativeness of software companies financial statements of limiting the amount of discretion with respect to software revenue recognition following the issuance of Statement of Position 91-1 in 1992. The…

To the best of our knowledge, the international business literature has been examining performance exclusively as a dependent variable. In this paper we argue that performance should also be investigated as an independent variable. Using survey…

A theory of decision-making is proposed that speaks to Herbert Simon’s methodological critique of economics without resorting to excessive reductionism. Formally, the new theory removes the Contraction axiom of conventional choice theory (which…

This paper examines the dynamic role of financial resources-available through rounds of venture capital financing-on the growth strategies of startups. We investigate three different roles and their evolution over time. 1) We examine whether…

Various industries are marked by rapid technological change and increasingly global competition. We explain how such developments provide a context for “Red Queen” competition, where organizational learning and competition accelerate each other…

How best to predict Australian federal election results? This article analyses three forecasting tools – opinion polls, economic models, and betting odds. Historically, we find that opinion polls taken close to the election are quite accurate,…

This paper illustrates why firms might choose to implement stock option plans or other pay instruments that reward “luck.” I consider a model where adjusting compensation contracts is costly (or wages are rigid) and where agents’ outside…

In today’s economy, competitive success is increasingly based on possessing knowledge and intellectual capital rather than financial or other “hard” assets.

This paper presents an exploratory investigation of the Manufacturing/Marketing (hereafter M/M) interface. From the literature and prior empirical work in M/M strategies, we propose a path model for assessing the mediating impact of the M/M…

This research explores the extent to which differences in perceived diagnosticity as compared with differences in the accessibility of associations embedded in persuasion appeals better account for the attitudinal differences found in the culture…

Building on the Dechow, Kothari, and Watts (1998) model of the accrual process, this study provides insights into the role of accruals in predicting future cash flows. The model shows that each accrual component reflects different information…

The so-called “paradox of voting” is major anomaly for rational choice theories of elections. If voting is costly and citizens are rational then large electorates the expected turnout would be small, for if many people voted the chance of anyone…

Many tendencies in social perceivers’ judgments about individuals and groups can be integrated in terms of the premise that perceivers rely on implicit theories of agency acquired from cultural traditions. Whereas, American culture primarily…

This paper examines whether property-casualty insurance companies manage earnings to influence investor expectations at the time of equity issuances. Our tests focus on the discretionary component of a material accounting accrual recognized by…

This paper uses a trading volume analysis to examine the extent to which SEC-mandated disclosures make firms’ market risk exposures more transparent to investors. We hypothesize that if the SEC’s quantitative market risk disclosures reduce…

Claims have often been made that the quality of the online customer experience in terms of web site ease of use, selection of goods offered, quality of customer service, the effectiveness of virtual community building, and site personalization…

Annual changes in domestic discretionary spending are analyzed to test predictions from three distinct types of theories of U.S. policy-making: (1) preference-driven, or nonpartisan, theories such as the recently developed pivotal politics theory…