Earnings Management of Acquiring Firms in Stock-for-Stock Takeovers in the Telecommunications Industry

This article investigates whether acquiring telecommunications firms managed their earnings by means of discretionary accruals prior to the announcement of stock-for-stock takeovers in the U.S. telecommunications industry during the period of 1990 to 2006. The results show that acquiring telecommunications firms manage earnings upward prior to stock-for-stock takeovers. In addition, this article finds that there is a negative short-term wealth effect over the days surrounding stock-for-stock takeover announcements, and there is an inverse relation between earnings management and short-term wealth.     

Functions of Social Gatherings Involving Alcohol Consumption with Coworkers in Korea

Focusing on alcohol-involved social gatherings (i.e. drinking parties), the current study examined the reasons for and outcomes of joining drinking parties and evaluations of them. In studies 1 and 2, Korean workers (n=87) employed in the civil engineering industry and undergraduates (n=103) from various engineering majors provided desirable and undesirable reasons for and outcomes of joining drinking parties with their colleagues (coworkers for working adults and school friends for undergraduates). In studies 3 and 4, Korean workers (n=102) and undergraduates (n=89) evaluated each of the outcomes as either social, personal, or both. In study 5, Korean workers (n=108) and undergraduates (n=111) evaluated how good or bad each outcome type would be. Findings showed that among the five types of the drinking party participation outcomes, the conversation category and the work-/school-life category were the ones for which working adults and undergraduates had similar evaluations. For the group, the hierarchical relationship, and the drinking categories, however, working adults and undergraduates had different evaluations. These and other findings are presented in detail, and the implications thereof are discussed.     

Framing Analysis of a Conflict: How Newspapers in Five Asian Countries Covered the Iraq War

This five-country study examined the extent to which the news coverage of the Iraq war by newspapers from India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines and by one news agency from Pakistan is framed according to the principles of war/peace journalism outlined by Johan Galtung. The findings, based on a content analysis of 442 stories from eight newspapers, suggest a slight peace journalism framing. Two important factors shaping the news framing of the conflict and support for the war and for the protagonists in the war (Americans/British vs. Iraqis) are religion and sourcing. Newspapers from the non-Muslim countries, except the Philippines, have a stronger war journalism framing, and are more supportive of the war and of the Americans/British than the newspapers from the Muslim countries, which are more supportive of the Iraqis. Stories produced by foreign wire services have a stronger war journalism framing, and show more support for the war and for the Americans/British than stories written by the newspapers’ own correspondents.     

Politics of representation in the digital media environment: presentation of the female candidate between news coverage and the website in the 2007 Korean presidential primary

This study analyzes how a female candidate was presented in the news media and on her campaign website, in order to compare the politics of gender representation in news coverage and campaign communication. Content analysis of news coverage of a Korean female candidate and the candidate's website shows that the female candidate was differently portrayed in the two media in presentations of personal trait frames, the linkage between issues and personal traits, and other gender-related characteristics, although the quantity of issue frames did not differ significantly. The findings suggest that although the news coverage still tends to reinforce gender stereotypes regarding a female candidate, the candidate used or articulated gender identities in her campaign website to oppose framing stereotypes in the traditional news media.     

The moderating role of cultural background in temporal framing: focusing on climate change awareness advertising

Applying the framework of Construal Level Theory (CLT), this study tested the effects of an environmental ad describing the distant-future (i.e. end of the twenty-first century) vs. near-future (i.e. next summer) consequences of climate change using a sample of college students in the U.S. and South Korea. Consistent with the proposed empirical model in this study, lower perceived temporal distance of climate change generally led to higher perceived relevance of the event and more positive attitude and greater intention toward the sustainable consumption suggested in the ad (i.e. using Energy Star® qualified bulbs). However, the effects of temporal framing on the variables were moderated by the culture-specific ways in which the participants represented time and interpreted temporal information. In response to the distant-future frame, South Korean participants tended to report significantly shorter perceived temporal distance, thus presenting higher levels perceived relevance, stronger pro-environmental attitudes, and stronger behavioral intention than their U.S. counterparts. Overall, the findings of this study have meaningful implications for the external validity of CLT and for the development of effective climate change awareness campaigns targeting different audiences around the world.     

Interplay of content type and product type in the consumer response to native advertising on social media

With the growth of consumer skepticism toward advertising, marketers have begun implementing native advertising. Drawing on the Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), this study examines how content type interacts with product type to influence consumer responses toward native advertising (persuasion knowledge, brand attitude, and intention to click ‘like’) on Facebook. A 2(content type: informative versus entertaining)×2(product type: utilitarian versus hedonic) between-subjects experimental study was conducted with a total of 155 college-attending Facebook users in South Korea. The results show that, for utilitarian products, informative content elicits more favorable consumer responses than entertaining content does. However, consumer responses are similar between informative and entertaining content for hedonic products. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that consumer persuasion knowledge mediates the interaction effects of content type and product type on consumer responses. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.     

中韩惯用语对比研究

惯用语是一种很有特色的语言形式,在各民族语言中占有很重要的地位,是语言研究的一个重要课题.中韩惯用语在结构形式、表意特点、来源等方面,既有共同之处,又有不同的地方.在学习过程中,如何区别它们的异同,是一个难点.本文旨在通过中韩两国惯用语的对比研究,找出它们各自的特点及其体现的两国文化和思维方式的异同,以加深人们对中韩惯用语的认识.     

Prosody and alignment: a sequential perspective

In their analysis of a corpus of classroom interactions in an inner city high school, Roth and Tobin describe how teachers and students accomplish interactional alignment by prosodically matching each other’s turns. Prosodic matching, and specific prosodic patterns are interpreted as signs of, and contributions to successful interactional outcomes and positive emotions. Lack of prosodic matching, and other specific prosodic patterns are interpreted as features of unsuccessful interactions, and negative emotions. This forum focuses on the article’s analysis of the relation between interpersonal alignment, emotion and prosody. It argues that prosodic matching, and other prosodic linking practices, play a primarily sequential role, i.e. one that displays the way in which participants place and design their turns in relation to other participants’ turns. Prosodic matching, rather than being a conversational action in itself, is argued to be an interactional practice (Schegloff 1997), which is not always employed for the accomplishment of ‘positive’, or aligning actions.