Research on professional service firms describes these organizations as having been increasingly colonized by commercial imperatives over the last 30 years. Extant studies contrast this now dominant ...‘commercial logic’ – which privileges revenue generation - with a ‘professional logic’ – which privileges public service. There are two problems with this commercialization thesis. Firstly, it focuses almost exclusively on Western European and North American empirical contexts in order to draw conclusions about ostensibly ‘global’ firms, thereby universalizing a particular. Secondly, professionalism and commercialism are conceived of in essentialized fashion, with meanings ascribed to each a priori. In the present study, we seek to move beyond these problems by drawing on a comparative empirical study of partners in professional service firms in China and Japan. The results show that firms in each context demand quite different forms of capital and dispositions from firm members. This implies that literature on global professional service firms need to take cognizance of the extent to which certain ‘rules of the game’ are applicable beyond Western countries. Conceptually, the study both outlines a framework for understanding professional service firms in comparative perspective, and proffers a theorization of professionalism as a de-essentialized form of symbolic capital whose meaning is culturally contingent.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
•Bitcoin reactions to COVID19•Bitcoin comovement with COVID19•Bitcoin as a safe haven•Wavelet coherence s of Bitcoin and COVID19
We apply wavelet methods to daily data of COVID-19 world deaths and ...daily Bitcoin prices from 31th December 2019 to 29th April 2020. We find, especially for the period post April 5, that levels of COVID-19 caused a rise in Bitcoin prices. We contribute to the fast-growing body of work on the financial impacts of COVID-19, as well as to ongoing consideration of whether Bitcoin is a safe haven investment. Our results should be of great interest to both scholars and policy makers, as well as investment professionals interested in the financial implications of both COVID-19 and cryptocurrencies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
The novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has quickly evolved from a provincial health scare to a global meltdown. While it has brought nearly half the world to a standstill it has affected the ...financial markets in unseen ways by eroding a quarter of wealth in nearly a month. This paper investigates the reaction of financial markets globally in terms of their decline and volatility as Coronavirus epicentre moved from China to Europe and then to the US. Findings suggest that the earlier epicentre China has stabilized while the global markets have gone into a freefall especially in the later phase of the spread. Even the relatively safer commodities have suffered as the pandemic moves into the US.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The number of online experiments conducted with subjects recruited via online platforms has grown considerably in the recent past. While one commercial crowdworking platform – Amazon’s Mechanical ...Turk – basically has established and since dominated this field, new alternatives offer services explicitly targeted at researchers. In this article, we present www.prolific.ac and lay out its suitability for recruiting subjects for social and economic science experiments. After briefly discussing key advantages and challenges of online experiments relative to lab experiments, we trace the platform’s historical development, present its features, and contrast them with requirements for different types of social and economic experiments.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
ABSTRACT Connected financial journalists—those with working relationships, common school ties, or social media connections to company management—introduce a marked media slant into their news ...coverage. Using a comprehensive set of newspaper articles covering mergers and acquisition (M&A) transactions from 1997 to 2016, I find that connected journalists use significantly fewer negative words in their coverage of connected acquirers. These journalists are also more likely to quote connected executives and include less accurate language in their reporting. Moreover, they tend to portray other firms in the same network in a less negative light. Journalists’ favoritism bias has implications for both capital market outcomes and their careers. I find that acquirers whose M&As are covered by connected journalists receive significantly higher stock returns on the news article publication date. However, these acquirers’ stock prices reverse in the long term, suggesting market overreaction to news covered by connected journalists. Around M&A transactions, connected articles are correlated with increased bid competition and deal premiums. In terms of future career development, connected journalists are more likely to leave journalism and join their associated industries in the long run. Taken together, the evidence suggests that financial journalists’ personal networks promote news bias that potentially hinders the efficient dissemination of information.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
ABSTRACT Fixed effects (FE) have emerged as a ubiquitous and powerful tool for eliminating unwanted variation in observational accounting studies. Unwanted variation is plentiful in accounting ...research because we often use rich data to test precise hypotheses derived from abstract theories. By eliminating unwanted variation, FE reduce concerns that omitted variables bias our estimates or weaken test power. FE are not costless, though, so their use should be carefully justified by theoretical and institutional considerations. FE also transform samples and variables in ways that are not immediately apparent, and in doing so affect how we should interpret regression results. This primer explains the mechanics of FE and provides practical guidance for the informed use, transparent reporting, and careful interpretation of FE models.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper highlights the enormous economic and social impact of COVID-19 with respect to articles that have either prognosticated such a large-scale event, and its economic consequences, or have ...assessed the impacts of other epidemics and pandemics. A consideration of possible impacts of COVID-19 on financial markets and institutions, either directly or indirectly, is briefly outlined by drawing on a variety of literatures. A consideration of the characteristics of COVID-19, along with what research suggests have been the impacts of other past events that in some ways roughly parallel COVID-19, points toward avenues of future investigation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•Increase in COVID-19 cases/deaths increase stock market volaility and illiquidity.•Lockdowns/Reduced Mobility increase stock market volatility and illiquidity.•Negative sentiments from Coronavirus ...related news deteriorate stock market liquidity and stability.
This study investigates the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the microstructure of US equity markets. In particular, we explain the liquidity and volatility dynamics via indexes that capture multiple dimensions of the pandemic. Our results suggest that increases in confirmed cases and deaths due to coronavirus are associated with a significant increase in market illiquidity and volatility. Similarly, declining sentiment and the implementations of restrictions and lockdowns contribute to the deterioration of liquidity and stability of markets.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•Calls for harmonised ‘sustainability reporting’ standards are underpinned by myths.•It is a myth that a Global sustainability standard-setting body is urgently needed.•Financial materiality should ...not be paramount in determining sustainability disclosures.•Investor needs cannot be satisfied by consistent and comparable metrics alone.•Calls for harmonisation overlook needs of non-investor stakeholders.
We critically examine the call for ‘harmonisation’ of sustainability reporting frameworks and standards that occurred alongside an increase in environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing during the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify three myths that have been promulgated in calls for ‘harmonisation’ that seek to: simplify sustainability reporting and ESG analysis and shift the control for standard-setting to an investor-oriented private sector body. We argue that the myths are based on deception, misunderstandings, and disregard for both academic research and the views of sustainability practitioners. They demonstrate a lack of regard for different users of corporate sustainability information, a lack of analysis of the alternatives, an overestimation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation’s expertise and mischaracterisation of sustainable/ESG financing.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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