Jon W. Bartley

Small Business Growth Characteristics

Financial characteristics are presented for small firms whose sales increased at a rate greater than the inflation rate over the period 1974–1979. It is noted that these characteristics differ somewhat depending on whether they were a retailer, manufacturer or wholesaler. A growing small firm is generally characterized as one which increases its leverage, decreases its liquidity and incurs a heavy investment in operational assets. Interestingly, it is also shown that these same characteristics, if taken to extremes, are typical of the failed companies in the sample. The reward of growth is success; the risk of growth is failure.

Parametric estimation of programming effort: an object-oriented model

This paper demonstrates that software development effort can be forecast during the conceptualization of a system using parametric analysis

Replacement-cost-adjusted valuation ratio as a discriminator among takeover target and nontarget firms

Abstract The financial characteristics of 65 firms were examined to test the hypothesis that the valuation ratio is a primary determinant of whether a firm will be the target of a takeover attempt. The valuation ratio is defined as the market value of the firm divided by the net current value of its individual assets and liabilities. The study examined a sample of takeover targets that were matched with nontarget firms on the basis of industry and size. Multiple discriminant analysis was used to examine the importance of various financial variables, and the valuation ratio was consistently the most important variable in the discriminant models.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: Why a Widely Used Sustainability Metric Fails and How to Improve It

Most of the worlds major corporations now publicly report their sustainability performance for a number of key parameters, such as water use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and waste generated. The metrics most often used to track progress are “total inventory” (for example, the total liters of water used, or the total tons of GHGs emitted) and average intensity (total liters of water used per ton of product or per

A Comparison of XBRL Filings to Corporate 10-Ks - Evidence from the Voluntary Filing Program

1 million revenue). Because average intensity is normalized for the companys level of business activity, it is commonly presented and viewed as a measure of the companys actual year‐to‐year efficiency. But average intensity is often not a reliable measure of a companys true performance in sustainability. An improvement in efficiency requires a company to consume fewer resources or generate less waste in delivering a specified unit measure of goods or services. This article demonstrates that, although efficiency directly contributes to average intensity, the measure is influenced by a number of confounding factors that make the change in average intensity a potentially misleading indicator of improvements in efficiency. The authors present a more reliable measure of changes in efficiency—one that is likely to benefit corporate managements as well as users of sustainability data—that makes use of flexible budgeting techniques. Examples are provided that illustrate Bacardi Limiteds application of the sustainability efficiency metric for external sustainability reporting.