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Using a survey of college of business deans, the authors investigate perceptions of published rankings of academic programs. Published rankings have become quite prominent, and anecdotal evidence suggests great efforts are being undertaken to be included in rankings or enhance rankings. The authors conducted a survey of business school deans to gain a better understanding of their perceptions of published rankings, and found that the majority of deans included in the survey did not perceive rankings to be reflective of underlying program quality. However, the majority chose to pursue rankings because of the perceived benefits to the university, students, and alumni. The authors also found statistically significant differences in deans' perceptions across universities with different accreditation statuses, sizes, and funding sources.

Background: Previous research has advocated the use of an integrated business curriculum, and has examined issues related to content, design and delivery of an integrated curriculum. However, no study was found that evaluated deans' perceptions of the importance of integration, the status of integration efforts, and the resources necessary for implementation. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of curriculum integration in business schools, factors influencing deans' perceptions of an integrated curriculum, and the actual implementation of such a curriculum. Method: Business school deans were surveyed. Then, survey logistic regressions were used to identify factors influencing a deans' perception of the importance of integration and resources influencing the actual implementation of an integrated curriculum. Results: The respondents indicated that the strongest motivation for curricular integration was the belief that it is critical to the future success of students. Faculty support was perceived to be one of the necessary resources for implementing curricular integration, and only 10% of respondents believed that an integrated curriculum would lack faculty support. The only significant stakeholder variable was encouragement from the advisory board. Conclusion: The results generally indicated that resource availability is crucial to both the deans' perception of the importance of curriculum integration and to the actual implementation of the integrated curriculum. Interestingly, while the deans' perceptions of the importance of integration are not influenced by perception of faculty support for the task, faculty support is a key resource necessary to ensure implementation of an integrated curriculum. (Contains 4 tables.)

We describe a day-long introduction to new accounting majors, which we call a boot camp. Boot camp it is an effort to make juniors more aware of their identity, career purposes and learning resources that are now parts of their world, much of which is not covered explicitly in the accounting curriculum. This paper provides an overview of the activities included in our initial boot camp. In addition, we provide information useful in organizing boot camp type activities at other universities. (Contains 2 tables.)

Constituents often criticize business schools for failing to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how business organizations function. Business schools have responded to the mandate with attempts to integrate discipline-specific functional knowledge into a coherent understanding of the evolving business organization. Successful integration of the undergraduate business curriculum will result in students who are more directly involved in the learning process and will increase curricular relevance by translating functional knowledge into business skills. However, curriculum integration is an extensive and potentially disruptive curricular change that may involve cost and is fraught with pitfalls. The authors surveyed deans at member schools of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International to assess the extent to which and the manner in which integration has taken place within the business curriculum. (Contains 5 tables.)

Analysis of various models of accounting-based stock valuation, based on expected earnings per share, is presented.

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We test the ability of analyst characteristics to explain relative forecast accuracy across legal origins (common law versus civil law). Common-law countries generally have more effective corporate governance mechanisms, including stronger investor protection laws and inputs provided through higher-quality financial reporting systems. In this type of environment, we predict that analysts with superior ability and resources in common-law countries will more consistently outperform their peers because appropriate market-based incentives exist. In civil-law countries, where the demand for earnings information is reduced because of weaker corporate governance mechanisms and lower-quality financial reporting, we predict that analysts with superior ability will less consistently provide superior forecasts. Results are consistent with our expectations and suggest an association between legal and financial reporting environments and analysts' forecast behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Daniel R. Brickner, Charles A. Brown, Mark Myring This paper extends prior research in the areas of fundamental analysis and the information content of losses in an effort to explain unexpected market behaviour in certain circumstances. Specifically, we develop expectations related to the relevance of fundamental financial signals to explain firm returns in cases in which earnings do not serve as an effective summary measure for valuation purposes. In such settings, we posit that market participants seek additional information sources, such as fundamental signals, to assist in firm valuation. Our results indicate that although earnings do not explain returns for firms sustaining losses, fundamental financial signals are value-relevant. Upon segregating our sample further, we find that the fundamental signals are significant in explaining returns for firms in which yearly returns appear to belie the direction of the firms' earnings. Taken together, these results support our expectations regarding the value-relevance of fundamental financial signals in certain settings.

We examine time-series variations in the accuracy of earnings forecasts made by financial analysts in BRIC countries and factors that have traditionally been used to explain these variations. Our analysis shows that the analyst earnings forecast accuracy is high and has stayed relatively constant over our sample period (1994-2009). While the timeliness of the forecasts has also stayed relatively constant, the frequency of forecasts and the experience of the analysts making the forecast have shown improvement. Finally, while the number of companies covered by analysts and the extent of industry specialization has stayed relatively constant in the aggregate, there is greater convergence amongst the countries. These results challenge the conventional notion that some analyst-specific characteristics can influence an analyst's ability to make accurate forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]