Financial Information for Decision Making: An Alternative Small Firm Perspective

Successful decision making in small firms requires the availability of financial information and its deployment in a variety of financial management techniques. This prescriptive dictate and the techniques and practices it advocates have developed from, and are supported by, a framework of assumptions derived from mainstream neoclassical economics. Substantial relaxation of these assumptions is often necessary to provide plausible explanations for many observed practices such as the irregular use of financial information in small firm decision contexts. Rather than seeking to justify these departures within the extant framework, understanding may be better accommodated by adopting a different perspective. Concerned primarily with the role of entrepreneurs in the market process, the Austrian school of economic thought appears well placed to provide an appropriate framework for the study of small firms. Financial information in this alternative framework is likely to have a different, less prescriptive, role in decision making

The Alternative to Assuming \u27Rational\u27 Use of Financial Information within Small Firms

Since emerging as a separate domain, research concerned with financial management in small firms has proceeded on a foundation of assumptions, primarily influenced by economics, which do not appear to be in accord with reality. Two fundamental assumptions are reviewed in this paper and the validity of each is questioned. These are that the small firm owner/manager is a rational economic decision maker and must have access to financial information to properly engage in decision making activities. Alternative interpretations, associated with the purposive action assumptions of the Austrian school of economic thought, are proposed as a more appropriate foundation for the development of theories of small firm financial management

The Impact Of Professional Development Of Effective Teachers In Low Performing Schools

Abstract Professional development is a substantial contributing factor to the success or lack of success in low-performing schools. Specific student-focused professional development can be used to increase academic achievement, school culture, and the level of effective teaching. A lack of attention to school-specific professional development can contribute to low student achievement, diminished school culture, and reduced teacher efficiency. In Florida, public schools have implemented the “4 Professional Development Standards” (Planning, Learning, Implementation, and Evaluation) to act as a tool to identify best practices in schools and classrooms as well as to determine what professional development is needed to improve instructional practices. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine the perspectives of teachers and school leaders regarding student-centric professional development and its effects on school culture, student achievement, and teacher productivity in low-performing schools. The study involved face-to-face interviews with teachers who participated in strategic professional development and school administrators who were integral in implementing professional development. Results showed eight of the 10 participants embraced schoolwide professional development that contained a focus on school culture, student achievement, and teacher productivity

Perception of 360 degree reality

This thesis examines the use of 360° technology in advertisements and how 360° commercials can affect people's understanding of his and/or her role in society. The application of 360° technology in an ad offers a wider view of the events taking place in the hyperreality of the commercial. The study looks at the hyperreality presented and the way it affects people in society. Some studies examine hyperreality in advertisements and the way that they can influence people's actions. However, this study looks at 360° technology in advertisements, a topic that has little to no research. The majority of the research on 360° technology pertains to how it is utilized in research fields, like marine biology. The advent of Virtual Reality Headgear, like HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, has increased the need to understand how this technology might influence people's perception of reality. The study uses past research that identifies what semiotics helped change the way in which people perceive their reality. To determine how this technology might alter people's perception the study uses post-structuralism to identify specific semiotics employed in 360° advertisements.Department of TelecommunicationsThesis (M.A.

Public Health Informatics in Local and State Health Agencies: An Update From the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey

OBJECTIVE: To characterize public health informatics (PHI) specialists and identify the informatics needs of the public health workforce. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: US local and state health agencies. PARTICIPANTS: Employees from state health agencies central office (SHA-COs) and local health departments (LHDs) participating in the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). We characterized and compared the job roles for self-reported PHI, "information technology specialist or information system manager" (IT/IS), "public health science" (PHS), and "clinical and laboratory" workers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Descriptive statistics for demographics, income, education, public health experience, program area, job satisfaction, and workplace environment, as well as data and informatics skills and needs. RESULTS: A total of 17 136 SHA-CO and 26 533 LHD employees participated in the survey. PHI specialist was self-reported as a job role among 1.1% and 0.3% of SHA-CO and LHD employees. The PHI segment most closely resembled PHS employees but had less public health experience and had lower salaries. Overall, fewer than one-third of PHI specialists reported working in an informatics program area, often supporting epidemiology and surveillance, vital records, and communicable disease. Compared with PH WINS 2014, current PHI respondents' satisfaction with their job and workplace environment moved toward more neutral and negative responses, while the IT/IS, PHS, and clinical and laboratory subgroups shifted toward more positive responses. The PHI specialists were less likely than those in IT/IS, PHS, or clinical and laboratory roles to report gaps in needed data and informatics skills. CONCLUSIONS: The informatics specialists' role continues to be rare in public health agencies, and those filling that role tend to have less public health experience and be less well compensated than staff in other technically focused positions. Significant data and informatics skills gaps persist among the broader public health workforce

Longitudinal Analysis of Relationships Between Planning and Performance in Small Firms

This paper investigates causal relationships between planning and performance utilizing a longitudinal database with responses from the same 2,956 businesses over a four-year period. Results confirm the association between planning activity and performance that is evident in most extant literature. They also, however, cast doubt on the traditional perception of the causal sequence of that association. Although subject to a number of limitations, the results indicate that planning is more likely to be introduced into a small firm after a period of growth rather than before a period of growth. These results make an important contribution to understanding the planning performance relationship for two main reasons: they overcome the static data and relatively smaller sample size restrictions of many past studies; and, they provide evidence concerning the sequence of the relationship between planning and performance

Budgets, Internal Reports, and Manager Forecast Accuracy

This study investigates the association between the accuracy of revenue forecasts and the accounting activities of budget preparation and internal accounting report preparation. While both budgets and internal reports are widely used, empirical evidence concerning their influence on the prediction of future performance is extremely limited. Consistent with the availability of formal accounting information improving predictive performance, we observe that internal accounting report preparation significantly improves forecast accuracy. However, partitioning firms by forecasting difficulty reveals that the accuracy benefits from internal reports preparation are only observed for firms with high uncertainty. Further, the results provide limited support for linkages between budget preparation and forecast accuracy. While we observe that the use of budget preparation and internal accounting report preparation is a function of firms’ structural and environmental characteristics, firms do not appear to adopt these activities as a function of forecasting difficulty, but rather as a function of predicted changes in future growth

Cd3As2 is Centrosymmetric

This is a revised version of a manuscript that was originally posted here in February of 2014. It has been accepted at the journal Inorganic Chemistry after reviews that included those of two crystallographers who made sure all the t's were crossed and the i's were dotted. The old work (from 1968) that said that Cd3As2 was noncentrosymmetric was mistaken, with the authors of that study making a type of error that in the 1980s became infamous in crystallography. As a result of the increased scrutiny of the issue of centrosymmetricity of the 1980's, there are now much better analysis tools to resolve the issue fully, and its important to understand that not just our crystals are centrosymmetric, even the old guy's crystals were centrosymmetric (and by implication everyone's are). There is no shame in having made that error back in the day and those authors would not find the current centrosymmetric result controversial; their paper is excellent in all other aspects. This manuscript describes how the structure is determined, explains the structure schematically, calculates the electronic structure based on the correct centrosymmetric crystal structure, and gives the structural details that should be used for future analysis and modeling.Comment: Accepted by ACS Inorganic Chemistr

Comparison of Charge Deposition Profiles in Polymers Irradiated With Monoenergetic Electrons: Pulsed Electroacoustic Measurements and AF-NUMIT3 Modeling

Successful spacecraft design and charging mitigation techniques require precise and accurate knowledge of charge deposition profiles. This paper compares models of charge deposition and transport using a venerable deep dielectric charging code, AF-NUMIT3, with direct measurements of charge profiles via pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) measurements. Eight different simulations were performed for comparison to PEA experiments of samples irradiated by 50 keV or 80 keV monoenergetic electrons in vacuum and at room temperature. Two materials, polyether-ether ketone (PEEK) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), were chosen for their very low conductivities so that minimal charge migration would occur between irradiation and PEA measurements. PEEK was found to have low acoustic attenuation, while PTFE has high acoustic attenuation through the sample thicknesses of 125 μm and 250 μm for each material. The measurements were directly compared to AF-NUMIT3 simulations to validate aspects of the code and to investigate the importance of various simulation options, as well as to characterize the PEA instrumentation, measurement methods, and signal processing used. The measurement and simulation values for magnitude of charge deposition, penetration depth, and charge deposition spatial profiles are largely in agreement, though spatial and temporal distributions in incident electron flux and effects of radiation induced conductivity (RIC) and delayed RIC during the deposition process complicate the process. This work provides an experimental validation of the AF-NUMIT3 deep dielectric charging code and insight into the accuracy and precision of the PEA method