Search results

The article attempts to determine whether academic research in the area of finance has a direct link to the practitioners in the field.

This paper used a survey of over 50 finance practitioners to ask their opinion on the relevance of academic finance journals to their respective jobs.

The results suggest that most business practitioners are more interested in proprietary research than in generally distributed academic research, the academic peer‐review process seems to reduce the interest of practitioners in academic research due to the time lag between the findings of research and their publication, and the statistical significance of academic research results does not interest practitioners as much as the immediate relevance of the research findings to their respective jobs.

A review of the literature suggests this might be one of the first papers to actually test the hypothesis that academic finance research has a direct transference to the finance industry.

The study aims at reviewing a synthesis of disclosure, transparency, and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Prior research overwhelmingly supports that the IFRS adoption or effective implementation of IFRS will enhance high-quality financial reporting, transparency, enhance the country’s investment environment, and foreign direct investment (FDI) (Dayanandan, Donker, Ivanof, & Karahan, 2016; Gláserová, 2013; Muniandy & Ali, 2012). However, some researchers provide conflicting evidence that developing countries implementing IFRS are probably not going to encounter higher FDI inflows (Gheorghe, 2009; Lasmin, 2012). It has also been argued that the IFRS adoption decreases the management earnings in countries with high levels of financial disclosure. In general, the study indicates that the adoption of IFRS has improved the financial reporting quality. The common law countries have strong rules to protect investors, strict legal enforcement, and high levels of transparency of financial information. From the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 105 articles, and in particular, the topic-related 94 articles were analysed. All 94 articles were retrieved from a range of 59 journals. Most of the articles (77 of 94) were published 2010–2018. The top five journals based on the citations are Journal of Accounting Research (187 citations), Abacus (125 citations), European Accounting Review (107 citations), Journal of Accounting and Economics (78 citations), and Accounting and Business Research (66 citations). The most-cited authors are Daske, Hail, Leuz, and Verdi (2013); Daske and Gebhardt (2006); and Brüggemann, Hitz, and Sellhorn (2013). Surprisingly, 65 of 94 articles did not utilise the theory. In particular, four theories have been used frequently: agency theory (15), economic theory (5), signalling theory (2), and accounting theory (2). The study calls for future research on the theoretical implications and policy-related research on disclosure and transparency which may inform the local and international standard setters.

The role and strategy of integrated materials management are reviewed. The impact of the concept is then considered in relation to the traditional functional structure of many companies. A strategy for the introduction of integrated materials management into a company is outlined and the benefits and constraints of the concept are considered.

The purpose of this paper aims to investigate micro enterprises financing in Indonesia and examines how this financing differs, depending on the enterprise’s development stage. This research also identifies some structural problems related to micro-financing and provides workable solutions.

This research uses the entrepreneurial network model of Schutjens and Stam (2003) to examine how Indonesian micro and small enterprises (MSEs) evolve even before they become regular small businesses. Content analysis is used on 10 micro-enterprises from Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and its surroundings. Financing issues at each stage of enterprise development are identified and deeply examined.

This research not only confirms the significant financing problems micro-enterprises face but also clarifies that these problems are unique to each stage of the MSEs’ development. One insight is that most micro-enterprises do not use funding from formal institutions. That is, business owners rely more on funding from non-formal institutions. This is because these enterprises’ managers generally cannot prepare loans application and/or they are lack of knowledge/training on financing matters. They hesitate to borrow from formal financial institutions, as the rates are high but the processing time is longer than those of the loan sharks.

This research contributes to the field of entrepreneurial finance by identifying the structural problems inherent in micro-finance and providing workable solutions for overcoming these problems.

Evidence for the harmful effect of salt on the health of adults is growing and is now so overwhelming that government authorities and health experts are recommending that adults should not consume more than 6g of salt a day. However, no such recommendations exist for children. Presents evidence to show that by eating their current high‐salt diet children are storing up health problems for the future. Evidence also exists to show that children’s poor diets are having health implications now, such as worsening of asthma and possibly preventing children from achieving their peak bone mass. Children’s diets have already been shown to increase the risk of obesity, heart disease and other health problems and these problems are being compounded by a high salt intake. Food providers and industry need to follow the lead of most major supermarkets, and gradually start to reduce the level of salt in food provided for both adults and children.

The purpose of this study was to examine Finnish seventh‐graders' (13 to 14 years old) nutrition health attitudes, perceptions of skills, reported behaviour and perceptions of families' and friends' nutrition health‐related behaviour.

The research data were collected in a baseline situation through a structured questionnaire presented to seventh‐graders (n=188) in four secondary schools, both rural and urban, in Eastern Finland. Two of the schools were experimental and two were control schools. All schools implemented nutrition health education according to the objectives of the national curriculum for basic education. Additionally, the experimental schools were developing their nutrition health education by using an ICT‐based learning environment.

The results show that seventh‐grade girls had a greater probability to follow healthy eating habits compared to seventh‐grade boys. Parental support had an important role in seventh‐grade adolescents' healthy eating habits and food choices. Additionally, adolescents' own healthy food preparation and choice skills were associated with healthy and versatile eating among seventh‐graders. As expected, no significant differences between the experimental and control schools were found at this baseline situation.

In Finland, strategies and curricula have been developed in schools to encourage children and adolescents to choose a healthy diet and to prepare healthy meals. Having high‐quality school lunches available to all and practical home economics as a school subject are good examples of well‐implemented nutrition health education, which could serve as model for nutrition health promotion worldwide.

Although small levels of sodium may be beneficial during infancy, high intakes may be detrimental to infant health. The aim of this paper is to give an overview on how sodium can influence infant health status in the short and long term.

The most up‐to‐date and pertinent studies within the literature have been included and summated in this paper.

The findings from this review indicate that high sodium intakes during infancy can have short‐ and long‐term health implications. Predominant sources of sodium include: cow's milk, formula diluted with high‐sodium bottled water and home‐prepared foods. Dietary advice needs to be imparted to parents with regard to “safe sodium” intakes for infants and how these can be achieved.

This paper gives a concise, up‐to‐date overview evaluating sodium intake and infant health.