Resource-based Hypothesis Research Articles

Factors affecting on the quality of financial reports in small and medium size enterprises

This study seeks to examine the influence of financial literacy, educational level, information technology, and the implementation of Financial Accounting Standards for small and medium-sized enterprises (FAS SMEs) on the quality of financial reports for restaurant small and medium business enterprises in the Banyumas region of Indonesia. A sample of 100 restaurants was selected from a population of approximately 300 small and medium-sized restaurants using a simple random sampling method with the Slovin’s formula. Data was collected by distributing questionnaires. Out of a total of 300 questionnaires, 100 were received back. Subsequently, the data was subjected to multiple linear regression analysis. Based on the resource-based hypothesis, the findings indicate that the use of information technology and the adoption of FAS SMEs have a beneficial impact on the quality of their financial reports. However, financial literacy and educational level do not have any effect. This study, despite its limited sample size, contributes to the advancement of knowledge in the field of financial accounting for SMEs, specifically in emerging countries like Indonesia. It achieves this by offering empirical data on the factors that influence the quality of financial reports for SMEs.

Priming Effects on Subsequent Episodic Memory: Testing Attentional Accounts.

Prior work has shown that priming improves subsequent episodic memory, i.e., memory for the context in which an item is presented is improved if that item has been seen previously. We previously attributed this effect of "Priming on Subsequent Episodic Memory" (PSEM) to a sharpening of the perceptual/conceptual representation of an item, which improves its associability with an (arbitrary) background context, by virtue of increasing prediction error (Greve et al, 2017). However, an alternative explanation is that priming reduces the attentional resources needed to process an item, leaving more residual resources to encode its context. We report four experiments that tested this alternative, resource-based hypothesis, based on the assumption that reducing the available attentional resources by a concurrent load would reduce the size of the PSEM. In no experiment was there an interaction between attentional load and priming on mean memory performance, nor a consistent correlation across participants between priming and PSEM, failing to support the resource account. However, formal modelling revealed that a resource account is not, in fact, inconsistent with our data, by confirming that nonlinear (sigmoidal) resource-performance functions can reproduce any interaction with load, and, more strikingly, any pattern of correlation between priming and PSEM. This work reinforces not only the difficulty of refuting attentional resource accounts of memory encoding, but also questions the value of load manipulations more generally.

The choice of contract duration in franchising networks: A transaction cost and resource-based view

Contract duration as component of contract design has both a transaction cost savings function by mitigating exchange hazards and a strategic value creation function by leveraging knowledge-based resources. Previous studies have not explained the value creation function of contract duration in franchising. This study addresses this research gap. Specifically, we complement the transaction cost model of contract duration by developing resource-based hypotheses to explain the knowledge leverage function of contract duration. Using resource-based theory, we expect that intangible knowledge-based resources, such as system-specific knowhow and brand name of the franchisor, will positively influence franchise contract duration. This study contributes to the franchise and contract literature by highlighting that contract duration has – in addition to the safeguarding function - an important knowledge leverage function. Data from the German franchise sector provides support for the hypotheses.

The Choice of Contract Duration in Franchising Networks: A Transaction Cost and Resource-Based View

Contract duration as component of contract design has both a transaction cost savings function by mitigating exchange hazards and a strategic value creation function by leveraging knowledge-based resources. Previous studies have not explained the value creation function of contract duration in franchising. This study addresses this research gap. Specifically, we complement the transaction cost model of contract duration by developing resource-based hypotheses to explain the knowledge leverage function of contract duration. Using resource-based theory, we expect that intangible knowledge-based resources, such as system-specific knowhow and brand name of the franchisor, will positively influence franchise contract duration. This study contributes to the franchise and contract literature by highlighting that contract duration has – in addition to the safe-guarding function - an important knowledge leverage function. Data from the German franchise sector provides support for the hypotheses.

Tree-grass ratios in savannas – challenging paradigms

news and update ISSN 1948-6596 commentary Tree–grass ratios in savannas: challenging paradigms One of the greatest challenges for plant ecologists is to ascertain which factors allow trees and grasses to co-exist in savannas (Moustakas et al. 2010; Figure 1). Two major hypotheses that ad- dress this issue have been proposed (Figure 2). The resource-based hypothesis states that grasses and trees have different root depths, and thus occupy different competitive niches (Scholes and Archer 1997). More recently, various versions of the disturbance hypothesis have been formulated, which postulate that disturbances such as fires and herbivory are major factors restricting the growth of trees (Higgins et al. 2000, Sankaran et al. 2005). In both hypotheses, rainfall is thought to benefit trees. Higher rainfall should cause deeper water infiltration, thereby benefitting the deeper- lying roots of trees and allowing them to grow faster and outcompete grasses by shading. Distur- bances that reduce woody cover, such as fires, would explain lower woody cover in relatively high-rainfall areas. Recently, these ideas have been the focus of a number of macroecological studies, which have found some support for the positive influ- ence of rainfall, and the negative influence of dis- turbances, on woody cover. In their seminal pa- per, Sankaran et al. (2005) showed that, for 854 sites across Africa, maximum woody cover in- creased with precipitation at sites with lower lev- els of precipitation (< 650 mm/year), but showed no relationship with precipitation at higher rainfall levels. They thus suggested that arid and semi-arid savannas are ‘stable’: here, even in the absence of disturbances, trees and grasses would continue to coexist. In contrast, in higher rainfall (mesic) sa- vannas, tree–grass coexistence would be facili- tated by disturbances such as fire and herbivory; in the absence of disturbances, high-rainfall sa- vannas would be expected to become forests. Other continental studies have corroborated these findings (Bucini and Hanan 2007, Sankaran et al. 2008, Staver et al. 2011). These studies have contributed to the idea that, at continental scale, rainfall, with the mediating effect of disturbances, plays a pivotal role in the tree–grass ratio of sa- vannas. However, two studies that were recently published have challenged various aspects of these two hypotheses. February et al. (2013) set up experimental plots to assess the effect of rain- fall manipulation on tree growth in a nutrient- poor mesic and a nutrient-rich semi-arid savanna Figure 1. What de- termines tree–grass ratios in tropical savannas? (Photo- graph taken at Weenen Game Re- serve, South Africa). frontiers of biogeography 5.3, 2013 — © 2013 the authors; journal compilation © 2013 The International Biogeography Society

Strategically valuable resources and capabilities and successful M&amp;A: a dyadic perspective

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are most popular external growth strategies. While the number of M&A has been increasing during the past decades, on average, only the shareholders of target firms gain value during the acquisition process, while acquirers do not receive abnormal positive returns. This paper analyses the impact of strategically valuable resources and capabilities on the success of M&A decisions. We test complementary resource-based hypotheses regarding the value of M&A for the shareholders of both transaction partners. Our sample consists of transactions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry. The results of our study show that the shareholders of both transaction partners will gain above average positive returns only when the acquirer and the target own and combine strategically valuable resources and capabilities.

Masting in oaks: Disentangling the effect of flowering phenology, airborne pollen load and drought

Quercus species exhibit an extreme inter-annual variability in seed production often synchronized over large geographical areas (masting). Since this reproductive behavior is mostly observed in anemophilous plants, pollination efficiency is suggested as one hypothesis to explain it, although resource-based hypotheses are also suggested as alternatives. We analyzed the effect of flowering phenology, airborne pollen presence and meteorological conditions in the pattern of acorn production in mixed evergreen-deciduous oak forests (Quercus ilex and Quercus pubescens) in NE Spain for twelve years (1998–2009). In both oaks, higher temperatures advanced the onset of flowering and increased the amount of airborne pollen. Nevertheless, inter-annual differences in pollen production did not influence acorn crop size. Acorn production was enhanced by a delay in flowering onset in Q. ilex but not in Q. pubescens. This suggests that in perennial oaks a larger number of photosynthates produced before flowering could benefit reproduction while the lack of effects on deciduous oaks could be because these species flush new leaves and flowers at the same time. Notwithstanding this effect, spring water deficit was the most relevant factor in explaining inter-annual variability in acorn production in both species. Considering that future climate scenarios predict progressive warmer and dryer spring seasons in the Mediterranean Basin, this might result in earlier onsets of flowering and higher water deficits that would constrain acorn production.

Location of rut stands vs. mating opportunities in Przewalski’s gazelle: A field test of the “Resource-based Hypothesis” and “Female Traffic Version of the Hotspot Hypothesis”

Abstract We studied the mating tactics of Przewalski’s gazelle on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau from 2002 to 2005. Przewalski’s gazelle is a cluster mating animal whereby female groups, including juveniles, travel to and from their resting grounds along fixed routes and dominant males stand on or near these travel routes during rut. To explain rut patterns in male gazelles, we tested predictions arising from the “Resource-based Hypothesis” and “Female Traffic Version of the Hotspot Hypothesis”. We marked the location of each rut stand and female travel route, measured food availability in each rut stand and recorded the mating opportunities of rut stand owners. We also conducted a field experiment to force female groups to change their daily travel route, and observed whether males abandon their original rut stands and shift their rut stands to new travel routes of females during the 3rd rut. We found that: (1) male gazelle defending rut stands closer to a female travel route had a higher chance of mating; (2) food resources within rut stands had no effect on mating opportunities of the rut stand owner; (3) when the female travel route was obstructed, female groups changed grazing sites, and all males abandoned their original rut stands and defended new rut stands along the new female travel route. In conclusion, the location of rut stands in relation to female travel routes is the ultimate factor for consolidating mating opportunities in male gazelle, supporting the “Female Route Version of Hotspot Hypothesis”.

The INTERNORM Project

This paper presents a pilot project to reinforce participatory practices in standardization. The INTERNORM project creates an interactive knowledge center based on the sharing of academic skills and experiences accumulated by the civil society, especially consumer associations, environmental associations and trade unions to strengthen the participatory process of standardization. The first objective of the project is action-oriented: INTERNORM provides a common knowledge pool supporting the participation of civil society actors to international standard-setting activities by bringing them together with academic experts in working groups and providing logistic and financial support to their participation in meetings of national and international technical committees. The second objective is analytical: the standardization action provides a research field for a better understanding of the participatory dynamics underpinning international standardization. This paper presents three incentives that explain civil society (non-)involvement in standardization that overcome conventional resource-based hypotheses: an operational incentive related to the use of standards in the selective goods provided by associations to their membership; a thematic incentive provided by the setting of priorities by strategic committees created in some standardization organization; and a rhetorical incentive related to the discursive resource that civil society concerns offers to the different stakeholders.

Determinants of parasitic plant distribution: the role of host qualityThis article is one of a collection of papers based on a presentation from the Stem and Shoot Fungal Pathogens and Parasitic Plants: the Values of Biological Diversity session of the XXII International Union of Forestry Research Organization World Congress meeting held in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, in 2005.

Parasitic plants are less affected by resource constraints than other plants and most exhibit broad host tolerances, occupy large distributional ranges, and produce high numbers of propagules. Yet, parasitic plants are characteristically rare in undisturbed habitats, and patterns of distribution within host populations are often highly nonuniform. Previous work on root and shoot parasites has identified strict germination requirements for many species but, while explaining host ranges and site–microsite preferences for particular species, this cannot account for the highly clumped spatial structure of many parasitic plant populations. Other research has examined the role of seed vectors, but in most systems studied, dispersers are not limiting and their dietary breadth, substrate use, habitat preferences, and distributional ranges exceed the extent of the parasitic plant. Here, I propose the “host-quality hypothesis,” suggesting that variation in the quality of potential hosts can account for nonrandom occurrence patterns of parasitic plants in many systems. “Quality” can relate to access to water, nutrients, or other resources that are generally limiting to hosts, whereby parasites are more likely to establish and survive on hosts with greater access (i.e., higher quality from the parasite’s perspective). Rather than supplanting germination requirements operating at the individual host plant scale or disperser behaviour operating at the landscape scale, this resource-based hypothesis applies at stand and population scales, explaining why some individuals within a stand or population are infected, while other apparently similar hosts are not susceptible. This hypothesis is explored using case studies on root and shoot hemiparasites, and is consistent with a diverse array of findings from a range of temperate and arid systems.

Regulation of Woody Plant Secondary Metabolism by Resource Availability: Hypothesis Testing by Means of Meta-Analysis

Our aim in this study was to determine how well phenotypic variation in foliar concentrations of carbon-based secondary compounds (CBSCs) in woody plants can be predicted on the basis of two resource-based hypotheses, i.e. the carbon-nutrient balance (CNB) and growth-differentiation balance (GDB) hypotheses. We conducted a meta-analysis of literature data with respect to responses of CBSCs, carbohydrates and nitrogen to six types of environmental manipulations (fertilization with nitrogen or phosphorus, shading, CO 2 enrichment, drought stress, ozone exposure). Plant responses to nitrogen fertilization, shading and CO 2 enrichment in terms of pooled CBSCs and carbohydrates were consistent with predictions made with the two hypotheses. However, among biosynthetically distinct groups of CBSCs only concentrations of phenylpropanoid-derived compounds changed as predicted; hydrolyzable tannins and terpenoids, in particular, were less responsive. Phosphorus fertilization did not affect concentrations of CBSC or primary metabolites. Plant responses to drought and ozone exposure presumably were driven by plant demands for particular types of compounds (osmolites in the case of drought and antioxidants in the case of ozone exposure) rather than by changes in resource availability. Based on the relative importance of the treatment effects, we propose a hierarchical model of carbon allocation to CBSCs. The model implies that CBSC production is determined by both resource availability and specific demand-side responses. However, these two mechanisms work at different hierarchical levels. The domain of the CNB and GDB hypotheses is at the high hierarchical levels, predicting the total amount of carbon that can be allocated to CBSCs. Predicting altered concentrations of individual CBSCs, i.e. low hierarchy levels, probably demands biosynthetically detailed models which also take into account the history of plant interactions with biotic and abiotic factors.