This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between accounting conservatism and the cost of equity capital (COEC). For this purpose, we use the quantile regression (QR) ...framework and examine the effect of two dimensions of conservatism (ex ante and ex post) on the COEC. This methodological contribution allows us to test whether the effect of the two forms of conservatism vary across the full distribution, especially at the extreme quantiles of the COEC. Empirical results from the QR reveal that the effect of the two dimensions of conservatism considerably differs across COEC quantiles.
Applications in artificial intelligence such as self-driving cars may profoundly transform our society, yet emerging technologies are frequently faced with suspicion or even hostility. Meanwhile, ...public opinions about scientific issues are increasingly polarized along the ideological line. By analyzing a nationally representative panel in the United States, we reveal an emerging ideological divide in public reactions to self-driving cars. Compared with liberals and Democrats, conservatives and Republicans express more concern about autonomous vehicles and more support for restrictively regulating autonomous vehicles. This ideological gap is largely driven by social conservatism. Moreover, both familiarity with driverless vehicles and scientific literacy reduce respondents’ concerns over driverless vehicles and support for regulation policies. Still, the effects of familiarity and scientific literacy are weaker among social conservatives, indicating that people may assimilate new information in a biased manner that promotes their worldviews.
The processes responsible for the formation of Earth's most conspicuous diversity pattern, the latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG), remain unexplored for many clades in the Tree of Life. Here, we ...present a densely-sampled and dated molecular phylogeny for the most speciose clade of damselflies worldwide (Odonata: Coenagrionoidea), and investigate the role of time, macroevolutionary processes and biome-shift dynamics in shaping the LDG in this ancient insect superfamily. We used process-based biogeographic models to jointly infer ancestral ranges and speciation times, and to characterise within-biome dispersal and biome-shift dynamics across the cosmopolitan distribution of Coenagrionoidea. We also investigated temporal and biome-dependent variation in diversification rates. Our results uncover a tropical origin of pond damselflies and featherlegs ~ 105 Ma, while highlighting uncertainty of ancestral ranges within the tropics in deep time. Even though diversification rates have declined since the origin of this clade, global climate change and biome-shifts have slowly increased diversity in warm- and cold-temperate areas, where lineage turnover rates have been relatively higher. This study underscores the importance of biogeographic origin and time to diversify as important drivers of the LDG in pond damselflies and their relatives, while diversification dynamics have instead resulted in the formation of ephemeral species in temperate regions. Biome-shifts, although limited by tropical niche conservatism, have been the main factor reducing the steepness of the LDG in the last 30 Myr. With ongoing climate change and increasing northward range expansions of many damselfly taxa, the LDG may become less pronounced. Our results support recent calls to unify biogeographic and macroevolutionary approaches to increase our understanding of how latitudinal diversity gradients are formed and why they vary across time and among taxa.
In two large samples (combined N = 31,045), we found a positive relationship between disgust sensitivity and political conservatism. This relationship held when controlling for a number of ...demographic variables as well as the “Big Five” personality traits. Disgust sensitivity was also associated with more conservative voting in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In Study 2, we replicated the disgust sensitivity–conservatism relationship in an international sample of respondents from 121 different countries. Across both samples, contamination disgust, which reflects a heightened concern with interpersonally transmitted disease and pathogens, was most strongly associated with conservatism.
Western conservatives are more focused on the past than are liberals: They experience stronger cultural pessimism and nostalgically yearn back for past society. We test the hypothesis that this ...ideological difference reflects long-term national-historical developments, by comparing ideological differences in the United States and Türkiye. Using archival data, Study 1 confirms that whereas U.S. society over the last century moved in a liberal direction, Turkish society recently shifted toward greater conservatism. Consistent with predictions, Studies 2 and 3 show that the relationship between political ideology and cultural pessimism is reversed in Türkiye, compared with the United States. Partially consistent with predictions, in both studies, the link between ideology and a nostalgic yearning for the past is attenuated (and essentially blocked) in Türkiye, although not reversed, compared with the United States. Together, these findings suggest that ideological differences in pessimism and nostalgia reflect, at least partially, objective differences in national-historical development.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on exploring the mutual impact of accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachTo empirically assess the ...theoretical arguments the authors estimate a simultaneous equations system for accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility determination by two-stage least squares in a sample of 175 firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) for the period 2009–2019.FindingsThe results of the present study showed that accountability in companies listed on the TSE has led to an increase in the use of conservative practices. Therefore arguably, companies that seek CSR activities are more conservative in preparing and presenting financial reports. Also, companies that engage in conservative practices for the benefit of stakeholders are better able to implement CSR activities to meet stakeholder obligations. These results show a two-way relationship between CSR and accounting conservatism.Practical implicationsAccording to the results obtained from this study and the elimination of conservatism from the qualitative features of financial reporting in International Accounting Standards, it is recommended for the trustees and authorities of national accounting standards to decide whether this qualitative feature is effective or not.Originality/valueFurthermore, the findings of this study suggest that the application of corporate social responsibility theories calls for more inquiry.
Summary
Because soil microbial communities are often altered by anthropogenic disturbance, successful plant community restoration may require the restoration of beneficial soil microbes, such as ...arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. Recent evidence suggests that later successional grassland species are more strongly affected by AM fungi relative to early successional plants and that late successional plants consistently benefit from some AM fungi but not other AM fungal species. Many of these late successional species are also often missing in restorations despite being heavily seeded.
To assess the effects of AM fungal composition within grassland restorations, we inoculated plots with six different AM fungal community treatments including one of four different AM fungal species isolated from a prairie, a mixture of all four fungal species, and a non‐inoculated control. AM fungi were introduced by planting 16 different inoculated nurse plants into replicated plots. We also seeded the restoration with a diverse, 54 species prairie seed mixture.
We found that AM fungal inoculation drove plant community composition; plots inoculated with certain AM fungal treatments were dominated by desirable prairie plants, whereas plots inoculated with other AM fungal species and the non‐inoculated control were dominated by non‐desirable plants including weeds and exotic species. Specifically, we found that many early successional species established well regardless of AM fungal inoculation, whereas the establishment and growth of many late successional species was strongly dependent on the presence of specific AM fungal species. Many conservative late successional species did not occur without inoculation. Overall, total plant community richness, diversity, and Floristic Quality Index were all significantly improved with AM fungal inoculation, whereas we observed that non‐desirable plant abundance was significantly greater in the non‐inoculated plots.
Synthesis and applications. Our results suggest that the lack of late successional establishment reported in many previous restorations may be due to ineffective arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities at these sites. We conclude that the reintroduction of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from reference prairie environments could improve restoration outcomes by promoting plant diversity and richness, especially for desirable later successional plant species, while simultaneously inhibiting less desirable weedy plants.
Our results suggest that the lack of late successional establishment reported in many previous restorations may be due to ineffective arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities at these sites. We conclude that the reintroduction of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from reference prairie environments could improve restoration outcomes by promoting plant diversity and richness, especially for desirable later successional plant species, while simultaneously inhibiting less desirable weedy plants.
Political ideology and brand attachment Chan, Eugene Y.; Ilicic, Jasmina
International journal of research in marketing,
12/2019, Volume:
36, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
We introduce political conservatism as possibly associated with brand attachment. We propose that conservatism, in particular, might be related to stronger attachment bonds to brands due to greater ...feelings of uncertainty, encouraging consumers to seek security via forming brand attachment bonds. In five studies, we demonstrate a relationship between conservatism and brand attachment. Uncertainty is able to explain the relationship, as attachment bonds to brands can appease conservatives' uncertainty. We also observe downstream consequences for price sensitivity and purchase intentions. Finally, the relationship may arise primarily for a brand with a domestic (vs. foreign) country-of-origin. Accordingly, consumers' political ideology may play a role in brand attachment with implications for how brand managers can segment or target the market in order to predict consumer–brand relationships. We situate our work more generally on the relevance of consumers' political ideology for marketing activities.
Aim To determine the principal drivers of variation in the evolutionary diversity of forest tree communities, with a focus on the temperate forests of South America. Location Forests across southern ...South America, extending from tropical forests in southern Brazil, to the temperate forests of southern Chile and Argentina. Methods We compiled a database of 742 forest tree community inventories spread over six countries and 12 biomes, or major vegetation types. In total, these inventories covered 3075 species of shrubs and trees. We combined this dataset with a temporally calibrated phylogeny that included all species. For each community, we evaluated multiple measures of evolutionary diversity, including phylogenetic diversity sensu stricto (PD), which is the sum of the branch lengths of a phylogeny that includes all species in a community, and its equivalent standardized for variation in species richness (ses.PD), which we refer to as lineage diversity. Results We found that biome affiliation is the most important determinant of the evolutionary diversity of woody plant communities, with climate also showing a significant influence. Communities in wet evergreen tropical forest have the highest species richness and the highest PD, but the lowest lineage diversity, while temperate forests in southern South America show the lowest species richness and PD, but the highest lineage diversity. Main conclusions Our results contradict the idea that temperate floras represent recently derived, evolutionarily poor subsets of tropical floras. Rather, the high lineage diversity we find in the temperate forest communities supports the 'austral conservatism hypothesis', which states that the flora of southern South america has evolved independently from the Neotropical Domain over tens of millions of years. Our identification of the evolutionary distinctness and richness of this flora suggests that it deserves as much conservation attention as the more species-rich tropical forests of South America and that southern South American forests should not be lumped into the Neotropical Floristic Province.
Biome Shifts and Niche Evolution in Plants Donoghue, Michael J; Edwards, Erika J
Annual review of ecology, evolution, and systematics,
11/2014, Volume:
45, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
What factors influence whether a lineage can successfully transition into a new biome, and why have some biome shifts been more frequent than others? To orient this line of research we develop a ...conceptual framework in which the likelihood of a biome shift is a function of (
a
) exposure to contrasting environments over time, (
b
) the evolutionary accessibility of relevant adaptations, and (
c
) changing biotic interactions. We evaluate the literature on biome shifts in plants in relation to a set of hypotheses on the size, connectedness, and absolute age of biomes, as well as on the adaptability of particular lineages and ecological interactions over time. We also critique the phylogenetic inference of past biomes and a "global" model-based approach to biome evolution. More robust generalizations about biome shifts will require detailed studies of well-sampled and well-resolved clades, accounting for changes in the relevant abiotic and biotic factors through time.
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