Valores del capital humano y las competencias del líder que facilitan la implantación de la estrategia organizacional

La obtención de una ventaja competitiva, el desarrollo, el crecimiento, la perdurabilidad, entre otros, son los aspectos que buscan las organizaciones a través de las estrategias que se definen. Sin embargo, no es suficiente con diseñar las metas y los objetivos que se quieren alcanzar, es necesario aterrizar estos propósitos en planes de acción e involucrar a todos los miembros de la organización, lo cual se consigue a través de la implantación de la estrategia. En este sentido, la etapa de implantación de la estrategia en una organización, da curso al camino establecido en la etapa de formulación de la estrategia, por lo tanto, se relaciona directamente con su éxito o su fracaso. No obstante, este proceso no depende de algunos pocos miembros de la organización, de directivos o de funcionarios, sino que depende de la buena sincronización y armonía de todos aquellos que hacen parte de ella. La presente investigación a través de la revisión teórica y de evidencias empíricas, busca poner de manifiesto la incidencia de dos aspectos clave en la organización sobre la implantación de la estrategia, por un lado, los líderes, a partir de sus competencias interpersonales y por otro el capital humano, a partir de sus valores. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que tanto las competencias del líder como los valores del capital humano son determinantes para la adecuada implantación de la estrategia organizacional.

Labor's shares - aggregate and industry: accounting for both in a model of unbalanced growth with induced innovation

The relative stability of aggregate labor's share constitutes one of the great macroeconomic ratios. However, relative stability at the aggregate level masks the unbalanced nature of industry labor's shares – the Kuznets stylized facts underlie those of Kaldor. We present a two-sector – one labor-only and the other using both capital and labor – model of unbalanced economic development with induced innovation that can rationalize these phenomena as well as several other empirical regularities of actual economies. Specifically, the model features (i) one sector ("goods" production) becoming increasingly capital-intensive over time; (ii) an increasing relative price and share in total output of the labor-only sector ("services"); and (iii) diverging sectoral labor's shares despite (iii) an aggregate labor's share that converges from above to a value between 0 and unity. Furthermore, the model (iv) supports either a neoclassical steadystate or long-run endogenous growth, giving it the potential to account for a wide range of real world development experiences.

Salud y crecimiento económico: un modelo de generaciones traslapadas, expectativa de vida endógena y capital humano

Este trabajo desarrolla un modelo de generaciones traslapadas con expectativa de vida endógena y capital humano. Recoge parte de la evidencia empírica acerca de la transición demográfica explicada por Notestein en 1945, donde variaciones en la longevidad de los individuos afectan positivamente el crecimiento económico de un país. El modelo establece que la falta de incentivos para invertir en salud estanca a una economía en una trampa de pobreza y muestra que incrementos en la productividad en el sector de producción de capital humano, al igual que cambios tecnológicos sesgados al uso intensivo del mismo, incrementan el producto de estado estacionario y pueden sacar a una economía de una trampa de pobreza.

Capital natural, capital humano y participación de los factores: una revisión de los métodos de medición del crecimiento económico

Este trabajo aporta tres elementos básicos para el análisis del crecimiento económico en Colombia: En primer lugar, para el cálculo de la participación de los factores en el producto, se separa el ingreso de capital físico del ingreso de capital natural y el ingreso del trabajo básico del ingreso de capital humano. Con esta metodología se comprueba que la participación de los factores reproducibles tiene una tendencia creciente como lo sugieren los modelos de innovaciones sesgadas. En segundo lugar, dada la no estacionariedad de la participación de los factores para poder hacer cálculos acerca de la productividad multifactorial se hace necesario encontrar la medida correcta de los factores. Se utiliza un método empírico para la identificación de estas medidas y se aplica a los datos colombianos. Por ´ultimo, utilizando los nuevos cálculos de participación de los factores, se desarrolla un ejercicio de contabilidad de crecimiento que permite identificar con mayor precisión el comportamiento de la productividad total de los factores.

Modelos de presupuestación de capital en finanzas corporativas y utilidad de los mismos

La siguiente investigación describe una aproximación teórica al tema de los modelos de presupuestación de capital, el objetivo fundamental se basa en comprender su enfoque e importancia al momento de tomar decisiones de inversión por parte de los directores de una empresa, así como de prever los efectos de esta en un futuro. Al respecto, y sobre la base de que los modelos de presupuestación de capital son herramientas para analizar posibles erogaciones de capital por parte de una empresa, es necesario para efectos del presente proyecto de investigación, definir sus diferentes modelos desde lo teórico y metodológico, explicando los diferentes conceptos relacionados con el tema. Así mismo, se explican algunos de los indicadores financieros utilizados en las compañías para medir y estimar la “salud financiera” de la empresa, además de puntualizar su impacto en la perdurabilidad de las entidades, lo cual permite dar una visión más general sobre la importancia que trasciende de los indicadores financieros, generando un impacto positivo en la evolución o crecimiento de la organización. En complemento, la investigación aborda la presupuestación de capital de manera particular aplicado en la gestión empresarial, sean estas privadas o públicas (estatal y gubernamental). En este sentido, se abordan conceptos elaborados por diferentes académicos en los que se exponen algunas aproximaciones respecto al posible mejoramiento de la presupuestación para los sectores a los que pertenecen determinadas entidades. Finalmente, se presenta de manera explícita las conclusiones que surgieron a lo largo de la construcción del documento de investigación, con el fin de dar cumplimiento concreto al objetivo general del trabajo, el cual constituye una respuesta a la pregunta de investigación que se enunciará en el desarrollo del documento.

Accounting for the economic risk, caused by variation in disease severity, in fungicide dose decisions: exemplified for Mycosphaerella graminicola on winter wheat

A method is presented to calculate economic optimum fungicide doses accounting for the risk-aversion of growers responding to variability in disease severity between crops. Simple dose-response and disease-yield loss functions are used to estimate net disease-related costs (fungicide cost, plus disease-induced yield loss) as a function of dose and untreated severity. With fairly general assumptions about the shapes of the probability distribution of disease severity and the other functions involved, we show that a choice of fungicide dose which minimises net costs on average across seasons results in occasional large net costs caused by inadequate control in high disease seasons. This may be unacceptable to a grower with limited capital. A risk-averse grower can choose to reduce the size and frequency of such losses by applying a higher dose as insurance. For example, a grower may decide to accept ‘high loss’ years one year in ten or one year in twenty (i.e. specifying a proportion of years in which disease severity and net costs will be above a specified level). Our analysis shows that taking into account disease severity variation and risk-aversion will usually increase the dose applied by an economically rational grower. The analysis is illustrated with data on septoria tritici leaf blotch of wheat caused by Mycosphaerella graminicola. Observations from untreated field plots at sites across England over three years were used to estimate the probability distribution of disease severities at mid-grain filling. In the absence of a fully reliable disease forecasting scheme, reducing the frequency of ‘high loss’ years requires substantially higher doses to be applied to all crops. Disease resistant cultivars reduce both the optimal dose at all levels of risk and the disease-related costs at all doses.

Understanding complexities in international accounting standard setting: agenda entry and the case of IFRS for SMEs

Earlier accounting works have shown that an understanding of agenda entry is critical to better understanding the accounting standards setting process. Consider Walker and Robinson (1993; 1994) and Ryan (1998); and more generally agenda entrance as theorized in Kingdon (2011). In 2003, the IASB placed on its agenda a project to promulgate a standard for small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). This provides our focus. It seemed to be a departure from the IASB’s constitutional focus on capital market participants. Kingdon’s three-streams model of agenda entry helps to identify some of the complexities related to politics and decision making messiness that resulted in a standard setting project for simplified IFRS, misleadingly titled IFRS for SMEs. Complexities relate to the broader international regulatory context, including the boundaries of the IASB’s standard-setting jurisdiction, the role of board members in changing those boundaries, and such sensitivities over the language that the IASB could not agree on a suitably descriptive title. The paper shows similarities with earlier agenda entrance studies by Walker and Robinson (1994) and Ryan (1998). By drawing on interviewees’ recollections and other material it especially reinforces the part played by the nuanced complexities that influence what emerges as an international accounting standard.

What determines the use of capital budgeting methods? : Evidence from Swedish listed companies

Purpose: This paper aims to extend and contribute to prior research on the association between company characteristics and choice of capital budgeting methods (CBMs). Design/methodology/approach: A multivariate regression analysis on questionnaire data from 2005 and 2008 is used to study which factors determine the choice of CBMs in Swedish listed companies. Findings: Our results supported hypotheses that Swedish listed companies have become more sophisticated over the years (or at least less unsophisticated) which indicates a closing of the theory-practice gap; that companies with greater leverage used payback more often; and that companies with stricter debt targets and less management ownership employed accounting rate of return more frequent. Moreover, larger companies used CBMs more often. Originality/value: The paper contributes to prior research within this field by being the first Swedish study to examine the association between use of CBMs and as many as twelve independent variables, including changes over time, by using multivariate regression analysis. The results are compared to a US and a continental European study.

Empirical evidence from the corporate collapse literature suggesting re-examination of accounting standards in relation to valuation of assets

This paper examines the recent spectacular corporate collapses of Parmalat in Europe, Enron and WorldCom in the USA and HIH in Australia and argues for a re-examination of corporate governance regulations, particularly in relation to accounting standards regarding the valuation of assets. The recommendation that is put forward in this regard is based upon empirical evidence arising from further examination of the empirical results in (Hossari and Rahman, 2004). Specifically, the recommendation is based upon the realization that, among the 48 financial ratios across the 50-plus refereed studies, five financial ratios, all of which contained assets as one of the variables, were a relatively robust indicator of corporate collapse. The five ratios are: Net Income/Total Assets, Current Assets/Current Liabilities, Total Liabilities/Total Assets, Working Capital/Total Assets, and Earnings Before Interest and Taxes/Total Assets. This paper suggests that it's not the failure of the corporate collapse prediction models, rather it's the erosion of the reliability of some key input data, namely assets and the valuation thereof, that is largely responsible for the apparent failure of these models in capturing impending collapses, such as those that we witnessed in the recent past. Such empirical findings support the argument that assets are soft targets for misrepresentation, because of the leeway granted in accounting standards with regards to their valuation.

The costs of raising equity capital by Australian property trust initial public offerings

This paper reports some of the direct costs of raising equity capital by property trust initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from 1994 to 2004. It also documents the amount of underpricing by these IPOs. The results indicate the average fees paid to underwriters and/or stockbrokers in managing and marketing the issue was around 3.3% of the public equity capital raised. The average fees paid to legal firms, accounting firms and valuers for their professional involvement and expert reports were 0.4%, 0.2% and 0.1% respectively, totaling 0.7% of the equity raised. Other fees such as printing, listing fees, postage, distribution and advertising cost around 2.1%. The total average direct costs amounted to around 6.1% of the proceeds raised. The average underpricing by these property trust IPOs was 2.6%. This paper also investigates the hypotheses that the percentage direct capital raising costs are influenced by the size of the IPO and whether the IPO is underwritten. This study confirms that larger property trust equity capital raisings have lower percentage total direct cost;, however, it does not find that underwriting significantly influences the percentage of total direct costs for these property trust IPOs.

Evaluating a measure of content quality for accounting narratives (with an empirical application to narratives from Australia, Hong Kong, and the United States)

This paper evaluates a texture-based approach developed by Sydserff and Weetman (1999), to examine corporate annual report narratives. This is achieved by using the texture index to evaluate information content (which includes readability) in accounting narratives. Specifically, we examine the letter to shareholders of reports from Australia, Hong Kong and the United States.

We suggest a texture-based evaluation provides a robust measure of narrative quality due to the incorporation of readability and content analysis. The ability to measure content quality assists in promoting accountability, with the aim of improving usefulness of corporate
information and disclosures, and greater investor confidence in capital markets.

This paper also investigates these exploratory results to consider variations in quality between different countries. Considerable differences were found between the countries with Hong Kong reports generally superior. These tentative findings provide a small contribution to the comparative annual report literature and the emerging area of narrative evaluation.

The impact of enterprise resource planning systems on management accounting : an Australian study

Information technology is significantly changing the operating practices of an increasing number of companies globally. These developments have important implications for the accounting profession and in particular accounting practices in the twenty-first century. This study examines the development of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as a means of illustrating how changes in information technology allows all systems in a company to be linked to manage operations holistically.

The study investigates the change in accounting systems using a sample of Australian companies with emphasis on the adoption of ERP systems including the potential impact of ERP on capital budgeting processes. The results show that ERP systems are changing management accounting practices, although at this stage, the impact on capital budgeting techniques appears to be limited. The findings contribute to the emerging body of literature on the development of ERP systems and its impact on management accounting teaching and research.

Financial accounting and library collections : the bottom line

The valuation and depreciation of library collections is an increasing challenge in the context of financial accounting requirements. The depreciation implications of major collection management strategies have become of increasing concern to Deakin University library in regard to accrual accounting reporting procedures. Changes to library collections, such as the transition to online journals, are moving the financial value of library collections from capital to operating budgets. Major collection management projects such as weeding print assets can have unexpected implications for depreciation and library budgets. Gratis publication acquisitions can also significantly affect valuation and depreciation. Many other libraries are facing similar challenges and this paper will incorporate a range of experiences and practices.

There appears to be little consistency across libraries in how collections are valued and accounting procedures can differ greatly across institutions. The seemingly arbitrary and often questionable nature of financial policies in relation to library collections can create problems for libraries when used to inform decision making and budgets. Libraries increasingly need to work in partnership with financial managers to ensure the financial reporting requirements do not result in adverse implications for collections and budgets and that the capacity of the library to meet its strategic objectives is not impeded. This paper explores the issues and challenges facing many libraries and outlines some strategies to assist library managers in dealing with this financial conundrum

The costs of raising equity capital for closed-end fund IPOs

This article reports on some of the direct costs of raising equity capital by closed-end fund licensed investment company (LIC) initial public offerings (IPOs) in Australia from 1995 to 2005. The amount of underpricing by these IPOs is also identified. The average total direct costs amounted to a relatively low 3.4% of the capital raised, while fees paid to underwriters and/or stockbrokers was around 2.3%, to legal firms around 0.25% and to accounting firms around 0.07%. The average underpricing by these LIC IPOs was 1.3%. This article also confirms that the percentage total direct capital raising costs are inversely related to the size of the IPO and underwritten closed-end fund IPOs tend to have higher percentage total capital raising costs than those not underwritten.