Through the lens of performance and performativity: reframing the research quality and impact of ethnographic digital research archives

Digital research archives such as PARADISEC were established as part of research projects temporarily funded by government research grants. On the tenth anniversary of PARADISEC, its founders, contributors and users are celebrating, among other achievements, a wealth of knowledge encompassing more than 9 terabytes of data, over 5000 hours of audio recordings of language and music from the Pacific, Asia and worldwide, and prestigious international recognition as a member of the UNESCO Memory of World Register (see Thieberger et al., this volume; Clement et al. 2013)

The effect of Piotroski F-score on short-term M&A returns:evidence from Europe

Abstract. This research objective was to unveil whether the separation of target companies by their financial profile in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) impacts stock returns. This research is motivated for M&A is an important research topic in finance for it pertains many pivotal aspects in corporate finance. M&A can be central vessel for companies seeking growth outside natural means, ownership amends, corporate restructures, and distressed companies in brink of bankruptcy seeking a resolution. M&A ties together imperative topics such as agency theory, efficient capital markets, valuation, financial statement analysis as well as highlights concerns regarding lemon investments. This research examined the short-term abnormal returns of European domestic M&As in conjunction with fundamental analysis on the companies acquired. Piotroski’s F-score was chosen as the main methodology for fundamental analysis and assessment of the target company’s financial profile. F-score is heuristic, yet effective way to separate stock market winners from losers. This study is an extension of the Piotroski’s binominal grading system into M&A to assess whether inclusion of accounting numbers as can act as a predictor of M&A performance. This study investigates whether there lies a difference in the performance of low and high F-score companies. Event- study methodology was applied in this study in estimating the impact of M&A announcement on the acquirer’s short-term stock returns. The geographical focus of this study is Europe during 2010–2019 excluding cross-border M&As, yielding a final sample of 154 transactions. This study finds similar results to prior M&A literature. Firstly, the full sample yields negative, and low scale losses during M&A announcements for the acquiring companies. The evidence indicates that the M&A announcements had no significant impact of the acquirer returns. Four different event windows were chosen to investigate impact of M&A announcements. The largest losses were during the longest event window, with minor losses in smaller event windows, although all negative. In comparison of high F-score and low F-score companies, the average abnormal returns were less negative in high F-score companies, albeit negative outcomes were evident in both groups. In the four event windows high F-score companies outperformed F-score companies, however both groups yielding negative returns yet again. As with the full sample, the results do not indicate that the M&A announcements had any significant impact on the acquirer returns, revealing that the market priced the M&A announcements effectively and timely. The fundamental analysis applied into M&A valuation seems not to separate winners from losers, but stock market losers from losers. Finally, the abnormal returns were regressed against a set of variables in a multivariate regression model, with the main objective to reveal whether Market-To-Book (MTB) ratio affected the M&A returns. The evidence further solidified the results in this study and concluded that the undervaluation through MTB imposes no predictor power over abnormal returns. This research fosters and contributes to academic research concerning M&A, accounting, and finance. This study reinforces previous findings in M&A literature as well as furthers it by involving accounting measures, a much-desired metric for scrutiny. Finally, this research sheds light on the short-term performance of M&A events in relation to the financial profile of the target company

Ensemble Prospectism

Incomplete preferences displaying ‘mildly sweetened’ structure are common, yet theoretically problematic. This paper examines the properties of the rankings induced by the set of all coherent completions of the mildly sweetened partial preference structure. Building on these properties, I propose an ensemble-based refinement of Hare’s (Analysis 70:237–247, 2010) prospectism criterion for rational choice when preferences are incomplete. Importantly, this ensemble-based refinement is immune to Peterson’s (Theory & Decision 78:451–456, 2015) weak money pump argument. Hence, ensemble prospectism ensures outcome rationality. Furthermore, by recognizing the structural isomorphism between mildly sweetened preference structures and Cover’s splitting rule in Blackwell’s Pick the Largest Number problem (Ann Math Stat 22:393–399, 1951), ensemble prospectism can be shown to yield better-than-even odds of selecting the expost higher-utility option – despite the absence of all-things-considered preferences ex ante

Oživljavanje socijalizma: Bugarski socijalistički spomenici u 21. stoljeću

Bulgarian socialist architecture, and particularly its controversial monuments, have recently become the object of various informal actions, debates and interventions which provoke continuous social reactions and inspire spectacular newspaper front pages. It appears that such monuments have infinite potential for dividing people, not only on political, but also on aesthetical or emotional bases. Nowadays in particular, the monuments have even greater social importance as the keepers of dissonant public memory, while their public appreciation reflects different posttotalitarian processes in Bulgarian postsocialist society.Posljednjih nekoliko godina bugarska socijalistička arhitektura, te naročito njezini kontroverzni spomenici, postaju poprištem raznih neformalnih akcija, rasprava i intervencija koje redovito izazivaju društvene reakcije i nadahnjuju senzacionalne novinske naslovnice. Ovi spomenici kao da posjeduju neiscrpan potencijal za izazivanje podjela među ljudima na političkoj, estetskoj ili emocionalnoj osnovi. U današnjem društvu spomenici imaju još veću važnost kao čuvari disonantnog društvenog pamćenja, dok stav javnosti prema spomenicima odražava razne posttotalitarne procese koji se odvijaju u bugarskom postsocijalističkom društvu

Pre-Decision Side-Bet Sequences

Risk-averse Expected Utility (EU) decision makers with wealth-dependent utility functions may find themselves indifferent between accepting and rejecting an indivisible risky prospect. Bell (1988) showed that under these circumstances it is EU-enhancing for the decision maker to engage in a pre-decision side bet, accepting the indivisible risky prospect conditional upon winning the side bet. The side bet places the decision maker on the convex hull between the initial-wealth utility function and the utility function with risky-prospect-augmented wealth. We show that decision makers restricted to actuarially unfair side bets engage in a sequence of individually EU-enhancing side bets. This occurs because optimal stake size is modest for actuarially unfair side bets, whereby wealth remains within the interval of interim convexity upon losing the side bet. As optimal stake size falls strongly with each successive side-bet round, wealth remains within the interval of interim convexity. The EU enhancement conferred by each successive round is also strongly diminishing. Hence the side-bet sequence is eventually truncated when no further EU enhancement is available

A Resolution of Emissions-Estimate Confusion for Informing Flight Choice

Air transport Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions estimates differ greatly, depending on the calculation method employed. Among the IPCC, ICAO, DEFRA, and BrighterPlanet calculation methods, the largest estimate may be up to 4.5 times larger than the smallest. Such heterogeneity – and ambiguity over the true estimate – confuses the consumer, undermining the credibility of emissions estimates in general. Consequently, GHG emissions estimates do not currently appear on the front page of flight search-engine results. Even where there are differences between alternative flights’ emissions, this information is unavailable to consumers at the point of choice. When external considerations rule out alternative travel-modes, the relative ranking of flight options’ GHG emissions is sufficient to inform consumers’ decision making. Whereas widespread agreement on a gold standard remains elusive, the present study shows that the principal GHG emissions calculation methods produce consistent rankings within specific route-structure classes. Hence, for many consumers, the question of which calculation method to employ is largely irrelevant. But unless GHG emissions information is displayed at the point of decision, it cannot enter into consumers’ decision making. A credible and ambiguity-free alternative would thus be to display GHG ranking information on the front page of flight search-engine results