Business Commons^™

The Dystopian Potential Of Corporate Law, D. Gordon Smith

Faculty Scholarship

The community of corporate law scholars in the United States is fragmented. One group, heavily influenced by economic analysis of corporations, is exploring the merits of increasing shareholder power vis-a-vis directors. Another group, animated by concern for social justice, is challenging the traditional, shareholder-centric view of corporate law, arguing instead for a model of stakeholder governance. The current disagreement within corporate law is as fundamental as in any area of law, and the debate is more heated than at any time since the New Deal. This paper is part of a debate on the audacious question, Can Corporate Law Save …

When Identity Thieves Strike, Know How To Strike Back, Robert E. Holtfreter

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

This article counsels victims of identity theft on how to help authorities track down the perpetrators of the fraud.

Electronic Banking In Nigeria: Problems And Prospects From The Consumer's Perspective, Agbada A.O

Bullion

This paper explores the adoption of electronic banking [e-banking] in Nigeria. It examines the problems and prospects of e-banking in Nigeria from the consumer's perspective. The research findings show that a number of problems ranging from human, operational and technical constraints hinder the maximum utilization of services provided through e-banking channels in Nigeria. However, the results from the study have also revealed that despite these problems, the rate of adoption of e-banking services in Nigeria is phenomenal as banks have recorded outstanding successes in some areas. Nigeria is a consuming nation and based on the experience from other sectors of …

Technical Analysis: The Interface Of Rational And Irrational Decision Making, William Martin

Publications – Dreihaus College of Business

No abstract provided.

Wherefore Art Thou Guidelines? An Empirical Study Of White-Collar Criminal Sentencing And How The Gall Decision Effectively Eliminated The Sentencing Guidelines, S. Patrick Morin

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Until the passage of the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines in 1984, federal judges had relatively wide discretion in sentencing federal offenders up to the statutory maximum. This judicial discretion led to a disparity in the sentences of similarly situated offenders, particularly in white-collar cases. The Guidelines attempted to eliminate this disparity by establishing maximum and minimum sentences for certain offenses based on the characteristics of the crime. An important feature of the Guidelines system was its mandatory nature, which decreased and structured the judiciary‘s discretion within bounds set by Congress.

The mandatory application of the Guidelines resulted in stiff …

The Moral Justification For Journalism, Sandra L. Borden

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Papers presented for the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University

Toward A Unified Theory Of Access To Local Telephone Systems, Daniel F. Spulber, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

One of the most distinctive developments in telecommunications policy over the past few decades has been the increasingly broad array of access requirements regulatory authorities have imposed on local telephone providers. In so doing, policymakers did not fully consider whether the justifications for regulating telecommunications remained valid. They also allowed each access regime to be governed by its own pricing methodology and set access prices in a way that treated each network component as if it existed in isolation. The result was a regulatory regime that was internally inconsistent, vulnerable to regulatory arbitrage, and unable to capture the interactions among …

Managerial Ownership, Corporate Monitoring And Audit Pricing, Soongsoo Han, Julia Higgs, Tony Kang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We study whether managerial ownership and corporate monitoring (board quality and analyst coverage) relate to audit pricing. Managerial ownership has been identified as a fraud risk factor under SAS 99. However, the role of ownership is not clear. Under an alignment view, high levels of stock ownership align management with shareholders. Under an entrenchment view, high levels of ownership may motivate management to be self interested. Corporate monitoring, as measured by analyst coverage and overall board quality (Gomper’s index), are associated with information quality. Audit pricing will be affected to the extent that auditors perceive monitoring as being relevant to …

Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between managerial stock ownership and the firm’s information environment. We focus on three dimensions of the information environment: total, public, and private information precision (Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens 1998). Our results suggest that firms’ total and public information precision are positively related to managerial ownership. In contrast, there is no clear pattern in private information precision across different levels of managerial ownership. We also observe that managerial ownership has a greater impact on the firm’s public information environment after the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, suggesting that the regulation was effective in improving the firms’ …

Quality Control Defects Revealed In Smaller Firms' Pcaob Inspection Reports, Dana R. Hermanson, Richard W. Houston

Faculty and Research Publications

The article reports the study of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) on the quality control (QC) defects of small audit firms. Topics including the accounting lapses of small auditing firms, tips on complying QC standards and importance of inspection on the auditing industry are discussed. Study reveals that smaller firms have deficient processes in conducting audit quality. The article notes that PCAOB is expected to increase campaign in assisting audit firms while small audit firms are encouraged to address their QC deficiencies.

Technical Analysis: The Interface Of Rational And Irrational Decision Making, William Marty Martin

William Marty Martin

No abstract provided.

Reconceiving Labour Law: The Labour Market Regulation Project, Andrew D. Frazer

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

This paper reviews the recent work by Australian labour lawyers that has embraced the ‘new regulation’ and in particular the idea of law as regulation. This approach has recast the academic study of labour law as being concerned with regulation of the labour market. While much of this work has concentrated on expanding the field of labour law to include many areas of law affecting the labour market (beyond the employer-employee relationship), the work has also developed the view of law as a mechanism of state regulation. The paper examines how the ‘regulatory turn’ in Australian labour law has affected …

Pcaob Inspection Process: An Objective, Comprehensive Assessment Is Justified, Bernard H. Newman, Mary Ellen Oliverio

Faculty Working Papers

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is charged with performing inspections of registered accounting firms. (Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Section 104) Basically, inspections are to “assess the degree of compliance. . . with the Act, the rules of the Board, the rules of the Commission, or professional standards. The inspection process has many aspects. Matters that have been discussed include timeliness of reports, extent of public disclosure of findings, qualifications of inspections, and the nature of the inspection process. Only the last identified matter, the nature of the inspection process, is the subject of this paper. After a review …

Alleviating Global Poverty Through Profitable Partnerships: Moral Imagination & Economic Well-Being, Laura Hartman, P. Werhane, D. Moberg, S. Kelley

Laura Hartman

While at least one out of six in the global human population cannot meet the basic demands of survival and they have little ability to buy goods and services, this situation also presents potential new markets for multinational enterprises seeking long-term sustainability. If economic growth is a continuing and positive goal for the planet and for global companies, then, as markets in developed economies become saturated, these new markets provide fresh opportunities to satisfy this objective.

Community Partnerships: Creating Tangible Benefits From Community Engagement, David Cooke Dr

David Cooke

A deeper understanding of the complimentary skills sets of corporations and the not-for-profit sector reveals that they have much to offer each other and that returns on investmnent for corporations and a greater flow of funds to charitable organisations can be achieved through the study of effective partnerships.

The Enduring Ambivalence Of Corporate Law, Christopher M. Bruner

Scholarly Works

Prevailing theories of corporate law tend to rely heavily on strong claims regarding the corporate governance primacy and legitimacy of either the board or the shareholders, as the case may be. In this article I challenge the descriptive power of these theories as applied to widely held public corporations and advance an alternative, arguing that corporate law is, and will remain, deeply ambivalent - both doctrinally and morally - with respect to three fundamental and related issues: the locus of ultimate corporate governance authority, the intended beneficiaries of corporate production, and the relationship between corporate law and theachievement of the …

Identity Theft 101, Robert E. Holtfreter

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

In this column, the author discusses identity theft complaint data published by the FTC as part of its 2007 "Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data" report.

Engineering Value Into Enterprise Risk Management; Six Sigma Techniques Can Improve The Quality Of Erm Processes And Enable Organizations To Manage Risks More Successfully, Sridhar Ramamoorti, Marcia Weidenmier Watson, Mark Zabel

Accounting Faculty Publications

Organizations should not only recognize and minimize traditional downside risks, but also embrace upside risks, or opportunities, as a strategy for success. According to a 2005 survey by management consulting firm Booz Allen, 87 percent of the market value lost by large companies with market capitalizations over US $1 billion was the result of strategic and operational blunders. Compliance failure, typically the focus of downside risk, destroyed only 13 percent of market value during the five-year study. Faced with this counter-intuitive finding, companies may wish to pursue a more balanced and positive approach to risk management. Enterprise risk management (ERM) …

States, Markets, And Gatekeepers: Public-Private Regulatory Regimes In An Era Of Economic Globalization, Christopher M. Bruner

Scholarly Works

This paper illuminates the spectrum of international economic regimes through discussion of an under-theorized regulatory structure in which traditional distinctions between state and market, public and private power, hard and soft law, and international and domestic policy realms, essentially collapse - the public-private gatekeeper.

Specifically, I examine striking similarities between global bond markets and e-commerce markets through comparison of entities regulating admission to them - the dominant credit rating agencies (Standard & Poor's and Moody's), and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Following anexamination of the development of these markets and the global regulatory power exercised by …

Quantifying Audit Quality: A Proposal Inspired By Recent Initiatives, Mary Ellen Oliverio, Bernard H. Newman

Faculty Working Papers

Audit quality has gained intensive attention since the cascade of audit failures in the concluding years of the last century and the first few years of our new century. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 [hereafter identified as the Act] introduced a new oversight strategy to enhance the quality of audits. To assure the performance of quality audits, the PCAOB was charged with responsibility for inspecting registered public accounting firms that perform financial audits for publicly-owned companies in the United States. To date, however, this process has not resulted in measurement of audit quality.

Since 2002, there have been two additional …

Deficiencies Noted In Pcaob Inspections: Implications For Auditing Instruction, Bernard H. Newman, Mary Ellen Oliverio

Faculty Working Papers

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has responsibility for monitoring public accounting firms that provide audits for publicly owned companies. Among the duties assigned to the PCAOB was “conducting inspections of registered public accounting firms.” A strategy for such inspections was developed that includes reporting deficiencies judged to be significant for supporting conclusions made.

This paper presents a content analysis of deficiencies disclosed in the nine inspections (during three years) of three accounting firms, along with the largest four firms, that are inspected each year. Also discussed are the general implications for auditing teaching in colleges/universities and in continuing …

Healing The Effects Of Medical Errors: A Vision Of Justice As Wholeness, Christiane Catharine Schubert

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Medical errors cannot be avoided completely even when employing the greatest care and applying the most sophisticated medical technologies. They occur when organizational, human, technical, or environmental factors lead to unintentional failures which result in recognizable physical, mental, spiritual, or social harm to patients. Until recently, the medical profession has responded with silence while patients remained uncompensated or resorted to the legal system. Professional distancing undermines transparency and patient safety while medical malpractice litigation ruptures the fragile relationships between patients and healthcare providers in whom patients trust. Philosophically, these responses draw on the framework of deontological liberalism, promoting notions of …

"Of All Professions Begging Is The Best" - Some Problems In The Study Of Professions, Michael Davis

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Michael Davis' original paper was presented to the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University on October 4, 2007.

Reply To Joseph Ellin's Of All Professions, Prostitution Is The Oldest (Except Possibly For Teaching), Michael Davis

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

No abstract provided.

Of All Professions, Prostitution Is The Oldest (Except Possibly For Teaching), Joseph Ellin

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Response by Joseph Ellin to a paper by Michael Davis Professions "Of All Professions, Begging is the Best"

Professions "Of All Professions, Begging Is The Best" A Paper By Michael Davis. Response By Joseph Ellin. Professor Davis' Reply, Center For The Study Of Ethics In Society

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Michael Davis' original paper was presented to the Center of the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University on October 4, 2007.

Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between managerial stock ownership and the firm’s information environment. We focus on three dimensions of the information environment: total, public, and private information precision (Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens 1998). Our results suggest that firms’ total and public information precision are positively related to managerial ownership. In contrast, there is no clear pattern in private information precision across different levels of managerial ownership. We also observe that managerial ownership has a greater impact on the firm’s public information environment after the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, suggesting that the regulation was effective in improving the firms’ …

Unilateral Refusals To Deal, Vertical Integration, And The Essential Facility Doctrine, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

Where it applies, the essential facility doctrine requires a monopolist to share its "essential facility." Since the only qualifying exclusionary practice is the refusal to share the facility itself, the doctrine comes about as close as antitrust ever does to condemning "no fault" monopolization. There is no independent justification for an essential facility doctrine separate and apart from general Section 2 doctrine governing the vertically integrated monopolist's refusal to deal. In its Trinko decision the Supreme Court placed that doctrine about where it should be. The Court did not categorically reject all unilateral refusal to deal claims, but it placed …

Securing Network Data, Robert E. Holtfreter

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Business

The purpose of this article is to present the major issues regarding threats to the security of network data, define internal/external intrusion and provide a list of the common methods of detection and significant established intrusion preventive practices for maximizing Internet network data security.

Cross-Country Analysis Of Auditor Specialization Premium: Effect Of Legal, Extra-Legal And Political Environments, Sirinidhi Bin, M. Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Previous literature has provided mixed evidence of a premium in audit fee for industry-specialist auditors in US and other developed countries. In this cross-country study spanning twelve non-US countries, we provide evidence of such a premium in the international context, implying that specialist auditors provide a higher level of investor assurance than non-specialists. Further, we show that the average audit fee in countries with effective legal, extra-legal and political institutions is higher but the specialization premium is lower than in other countries. We interpret this finding as evidence that while effective institutions increase the demand for average level of audit …