INTERNATIONAL VARIATION IN RETURN ON EQUITY IN THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES

The objective is to analyze the effects of country- and firm-specific factors on the return on equity in the beverage and tobacco and food and consumer-products industries for 11industrialized nations. The results indicate that country- and firm-specific factors are important in explaining variation in return on equity within countries but not generally across countries or time.beverage and tobacco industry, country- and firm-specific factors, food and consumer-products industry, globalization, unbalanced panel data, variation in return on equity, Agribusiness,

Heated debates and cool analysis: thinking well about financial ethics

Not for the first time, the banks and other financial institutions have got themselves – and the rest of us – into a mess, this time on an unprecedented financial and geographical scale. It is no surprise that opinions about causes, consequences and cures abound with ethical issues, as well as technical and economic concerns, a focus of attention. It is to be hoped that useful lessons for the future will be learned. In this chapter, however, we step back from a direct engagement with the stated ills of the financial system itself, whether actual or perceived, chronic or acute. Our starting point is that crisis in the financial system not only makes us stop and think; but it might also, particularly under conditions of moral panic, prevent us from thinking well. Our contention is that a further impediment to thinking well about financial crises is the lack of a substantial body of academic knowledge that might be termed ‘financial ethics’ – a corpus of well developed conceptual insights and appropriate empirical evidence. We identify some of the reasons for this situation and proffer some suggestions regarding what might be done to remedy it – including the development of knowledge that is as relevant to everyday practices during periods of normality as it is to providing perspectives on crisis. The chapter is structured as follows: the next section provides a perspective on debate during times of crisis; the middle section seeks to explain why academic financial ethics is not a significant constituent element of debate on the financial crisis post-2007; and the final two main sections explore ways in which an academic agenda for financial ethics might be constructed. In a curious way this chapter echoes some of the themes and especially the conclusion of David Bevan’s chapter in this work (chapter18) although the reasoning to the conclusion that finance ethics is an empty set follows a rather different Badiou-inspired path in chapter 18

Corporate Social Reporting in Libya: A Research Note

Purpose Not enough is known about social accounting disclosure practices in developing countries. This research note adds strength and depth to the few other studies that take Libya as a point of departure to understanding the dynamic between disclosure practices and the context in which they are performed. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 270 annual reports from 54 companies, both public and private across a range of sectors and covering a five year period (2001-2005) were analysed using content analysis to ascertain patterns and trends in corporate social reporting by Libyan companies. Findings Libyan companies generally disclose some information related to social responsibility but at a low level compared with developed countries and only in certain areas. This situation changed little over the five year period under scrutiny. Research limitations/implications During the five year period examined, CSR remained largely unresponsive to significant changes in the political scene that occurred over a much longer period of time. This suggests further research is needed to illuminate the role and influence of societal culture and to understand the impact of organisational subculture on disclosure and responsibility practices. Originality/value Libya provides a point of departure for further research into other transitioning or developing economies, particularly those in the Arab world. It also offers unique insights and the possibility for comparative studies between them due to its particular character. This note augments and adds depth to other studies in the area

A CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON OF EFFICIENCY OF FIRMS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Stochastic frontier analysis is used to determine the relative efficiency of firms in the food industry in industrialized countries. Using panel data analysis, the firm-specific factors, firm-size, the corporate tax rate and number of years of operation and country-specific effects as potential sources of efficiency are investigated. Relevant implications are discussed.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

CROSS-COUNTRY COMPARISON OF EFFICIENCY OF FIRMS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Stochastic frontier analysis is used to determine the relative efficiency of firms in the food industry in industrialized countries. Using panel data analysis, the firm-specific factors, firm size, the corporate tax rate and number of years of operation and country-specific effects as potential sources of efficiency are investigated. Relevant implications are discussed.Agribusiness, Industrial Organization, Productivity Analysis,

INTERNATIONAL VARIATION OF RETURN ON EQUITY IN THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES

The objective was to analyze the effects of country and firm specific factors on the return on equity in the beverage and tobacco and food and consumer products industries for eleven industrialized nations. The results indicated that country and firm specific factors were important in explaining variation in return on equity within countries but not generally across countries or time.variation on return in equity, globalization, Agribusiness, Industrial Organization,

Thinning of the Sun's magnetic layer: the peculiar solar minimum could have been predicted

The solar magnetic activity cycle causes changes in the Sun on timescales that are relevant to human lifetimes. The minimum in solar activity that preceded the current solar cycle (cycle 24) was deeper and quieter than any other recent minimum. Using data from the Birmingham Solar-Oscillations Network (BiSON), we show that the structure of the solar sub-surface layers during the descending phase of the preceding cycle (cycle 23) was very different from that during cycle 22. This leads us to believe that a detailed examination of the data would have led to the prediction that the cycle-24 minimum would be out of the ordinary. The behavior of the oscillation frequencies allows us to infer that changes in the Sun that affected the oscillation frequencies in cycle 23 were localized mainly to layers above about 0.996Rsun, depths shallower than about 3000 km. In cycle 22, on the other hand, the changes must have also occurred in the deeper-lying layers.Comment: To appear in Ap