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Singapore Management University

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Articles 241 - 270 of 312

Full-Text Articles in Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics

Corporate Governance And Mindfulness: The Impact Of Management Accounting Systems Change, John Joseph Williams, Alfred E. Seaman Oct 2010

Corporate Governance And Mindfulness: The Impact Of Management Accounting Systems Change, John Joseph Williams, Alfred E. Seaman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The International Federation of Accountants (2009) argues that a governance structure should go beyond conformance with regulations and equally support a performance dimension that can lead to better outcomes. This paper explores the relationship between these two governance dimensions and the capacity for mindfulness, utilizing organizational theory that describes high reliability organizations. Survey data was obtained from top-level accounting professionals in a sample of 124 Canadian firms. Regression results support the hypothesis that both the conformance and performance dimensions of governance are significant determinants of the capacity for mindfulness. Additional analysis shows that the explanatory power of this relationship persists …

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Auditor Reputation And Earnings Management: International Evidence From The Banking Industry, Kanagaretnam Kiridaran, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo Oct 2010

Auditor Reputation And Earnings Management: International Evidence From The Banking Industry, Kanagaretnam Kiridaran, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between auditor reputation and earnings management in banks using a sample of banks from 29 countries. In particular, we examine the implications of two aspects of auditor reputation, auditor type and auditor industry specialization, for earnings management in banks. We find that both auditor type and auditor industry specialization moderate benchmark-beating (loss-avoidance and just-meeting-or-beating prior year’s earnings) behavior in banks. In addition, we find that once auditor type and auditor industry specialization are included in the same tests, only auditor industry specialization has a significant impact on constraining benchmark-beating behavior. In separate tests related to income-increasing …

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Obtaining Intangible And Tangible Benefits From Corporate Social Responsibility, Wei Nurn Chong, Gilbert Tan Sep 2010

Obtaining Intangible And Tangible Benefits From Corporate Social Responsibility, Wei Nurn Chong, Gilbert Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance has been heavily studied in past research. However, little theory has been developed on how CSR may lead to greater corporate financial performance. In this paper, the authors attempt to fill this theoretical gap by explaining how CSR leads to the tangible benefits of attracting better employees, reduced turnover rate, greater efficiency, and reduced operating costs, via the intangible benefits of firm reputation, organizational commitment, and learning. Thereafter, managerial implications and further research opportunities are discussed.

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Does Auditor Tenure Improve Audit Quality? Moderating Effects Of Industry Specialization And Fee Dependence, Chee Yeow Lim, Hun-Tong Tan Sep 2010

Does Auditor Tenure Improve Audit Quality? Moderating Effects Of Industry Specialization And Fee Dependence, Chee Yeow Lim, Hun-Tong Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate whether the relation between auditor tenure and audit quality is conditional on auditor specialization and fee dependence. Although prior studies have investigated the relation between extended auditor-client tenure and audit quality, none has examined how this relation is jointly influenced by both auditor specialization and fee dependence. Our main analyses, using accrual quality as a measure of audit quality, show that firms audited by specialists (vs. non-specialists) have relatively higher audit quality with extended auditor tenure, and that this relation is negatively moderated by auditors’ fee dependence on clients. These results are robust to sensitivity tests, and alternative …

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Corporate Valuation Around The World: The Effects Of Governance, Growth, And Openness, Choong Tze Chua, Cheol S. Eun, Sandy Lai Jul 2010

Corporate Valuation Around The World: The Effects Of Governance, Growth, And Openness, Choong Tze Chua, Cheol S. Eun, Sandy Lai

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of corporate valuation around the world. Specifically, we (i) document and compare corporate valuation around the world, and (ii) identify the key factors that drive cross-country differences in valuation. In doing so, we utilize the country-level Tobin's q (CTQ), computed as the ratio of the aggregate market value to book value of all assets held by all public firms domiciled in a country, which amounts to the Tobin's q for the [`]market portfolio' of the country. The key findings of the paper are: First, CTQ varies greatly across countries, …

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The Way We Think: Ethics, Health And The Environment In International Business, David N. Smith Mar 2010

The Way We Think: Ethics, Health And The Environment In International Business, David N. Smith

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Breaches of ethics and social responsibility in domestic and international business are typically thought to be anchored in such phenomena as greed, dishonesty and conflict of interest. While these forces are frequently at work in international business transactions, there is often another major force at work when failures of ethics and social responsibility occur. This article addresses the question of what is it about the way that transnational company managers and government officials think or don't think that leads to breaches of ethics and social responsibility - breaches that often result in major health, environmental and social tragedies. The article …

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Corporate Governance, Investor Protection, And Auditor Choice In Emerging Markets, Mahmud Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim, Patricia Mui Siang Tan Mar 2010

Corporate Governance, Investor Protection, And Auditor Choice In Emerging Markets, Mahmud Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim, Patricia Mui Siang Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this study, we examine the effect of firm-level governance on the firm's choice of an external auditor. Further, we test how the relation between corporate governance and auditor choice may be affected by the strength of legal environment. The results show that firm-level governance scores are positively related to the firm's auditor choice. This association is strengthened by country-level legal protection. Specifically, the positive association between auditor choice and the firm-level governance scores is weaker (stronger) in a low (high) legal environment. These findings are robust after controlling for determinants that were found to be significant in earlier research. …

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Corporate Social Innovation, Jared Tham Jan 2010

Corporate Social Innovation, Jared Tham

Social Space

CSR has long been perceived as an afterthought in the corporate world. However, perceptions are shifting, and CSR is becoming part of the innovation paradigm of a corporation, creating what is arguably a turning point in the history of the CSR movement.

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Socially Responsible Investment In Asia, Geoffrey Williams Jan 2010

Socially Responsible Investment In Asia, Geoffrey Williams

Social Space

Recent worries about product safety, transparent corporate governance and the social and environmental impact of corporate activity have been the drivers of “Socially Responsible Investment” (SRI) in Europe and North America. Geoffrey Williams delves into the rise of SRI in Asia, where opportunities for strong investment returns are wide and growing.

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Uncovering The Dirty Secrets Of A Food Paradise: Young Journalists Go Undercover, Estelle Low, Miak Aw Jan 2010

Uncovering The Dirty Secrets Of A Food Paradise: Young Journalists Go Undercover, Estelle Low, Miak Aw

Social Space

Singapore is universally known as a food paradise, but far less is known about the enormous amount of waste generated daily by individuals, supermarkets, food outlets and hotels. 20-something investigative journalists Miak Aw and Estelle Low go undercover to shed light on how much we waste as a nation and why this needs to change.

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Storytellers As Philanthropic Champions: An Interview With Claire Chiang, Lien Centre For Social Innovation Jan 2010

Storytellers As Philanthropic Champions: An Interview With Claire Chiang, Lien Centre For Social Innovation

Social Space

Singapore’s charity sector is undergoing significant changes to enhance management quality, accountability and transparency. But despite these positive changes, Ms Claire Chiang, entrepreneur and philanthropist, argues that Singapore also needs to cultivate a more visionary and global approach to philanthropy. She shares with Social Space her thoughts on storytelling and the need for mentors to champion the most urgent causes of the day.

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Contextualising Csr: Multi-Stakeholder Approaches To Development Initiatives In Southeast Asia, Christine Davis, Stephanie Soderborg Jan 2010

Contextualising Csr: Multi-Stakeholder Approaches To Development Initiatives In Southeast Asia, Christine Davis, Stephanie Soderborg

Social Space

As the focus on CSR expands throughout Asia, discussion prevails about the form it needs to take to be germane to the needs of each respective country. The authors discuss Kenan Institute Asia’s efforts in developing a responsible management education (or CSR curriculum and training) for future managers and business leaders in Vietnam.

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Business Solutions To Global Challenges, Richard Welford Jan 2010

Business Solutions To Global Challenges, Richard Welford

Social Space

Despite the prevalence of CSR initiatives in companies, there is a need to leverage on current practices to make them more effective and meaningful. Richard Welford looks at the advantages to such an approach.

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Discovering The Asian Form Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Bindu Sharma Jan 2010

Discovering The Asian Form Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Bindu Sharma

Social Space

This article is part of an on-going research project that will look at the how corporate social responsibility (CSR) is being re-contextualised and re-defined in ten countries across Asia and how these perspectives contrast with the discourse of CSR in global (primarily Western) multinational corporations.

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Corporate Social Responsibility And The Legal Profession, Eugene K. B. Tan Jan 2010

Corporate Social Responsibility And The Legal Profession, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

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Why "Democracy" And "Drifter" Firms Can Have Abnormal Returns: The Joint Importance Of Corporate Governance And Abnormal Accruals In Separating Winners From Losers, Koon Boon Kee Jan 2010

Why "Democracy" And "Drifter" Firms Can Have Abnormal Returns: The Joint Importance Of Corporate Governance And Abnormal Accruals In Separating Winners From Losers, Koon Boon Kee

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Do managers exercise accounting discretion in an opportunistic or efficient manner? Good governance structures, which mitigate agency costs, are necessary to ensure that the accounting information supplied by management is not opportunistically manipulated. The output of quality accounting information, in turn, serves as an input to better governance structures. Thus, governance and earnings quality (EQ) are inexorably linked through a complementarity relationship. This suggests two previously unexamined relationships. Firstly, the governance effects on performance in the influential paper by Gompers, Ishii and Metrick (2003) is overrated without good EQ, measured by the magnitude of abnormal accruals (AA), as an input. …

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Why Does Corporate Governance Matter? Evidence From Seasoned Bond Offerings, Fang Wang Jan 2010

Why Does Corporate Governance Matter? Evidence From Seasoned Bond Offerings, Fang Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

To examine the importance of corporate governance, I look at how management and investors behave in the event of seasoned bond offerings, controlling for the corporate governance structure of issuing firms. I find that companies with the weakest governance structure aggressively manipulate their earnings upwards during the two years prior to the debt issuances. And when the bond offerings are announced to the market, these same firms experienced positive abnormal returns over a three day event period, indicating that investors of poorly governed firms value a debt financing for the alleged decrease in agency cost.

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Does Corporate Governance Matter, Evidence From Earnings Management Practices In Singapore, Lingxu Hu Jan 2010

Does Corporate Governance Matter, Evidence From Earnings Management Practices In Singapore, Lingxu Hu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This paper addresses two questions. First, do good corporate governance practices add values to company or does it lead to higher stock returns in Singapore? Second, does poorly governed listed company in SGX tend to manage their earnings by using discretionary accruals? Following the approach of Gompers et al. (2003), we formed two portfolios consisting of well-governed and poorly governed companies. Well governed companies are able to maintain a higher return relative to poorly governed companies. I also look at the firm valuation from the adoption of corporate governance practices. Our result shows a positive relationship between firm valuation and …

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The Impact Of Employees' Perception Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Job Attitudes And Behaviors: A Study In China, Dan Zheng Jan 2010

The Impact Of Employees' Perception Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Job Attitudes And Behaviors: A Study In China, Dan Zheng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is regarded as voluntary bahaviors that contribute to the soceity welfare. Based on the concept of sustainable development, corporations should not only stress on their economic and business outcomes, but also pay attention to their effect on the society and environment. Corporations are expected to engage in the improvement of their employees' quality of life, as well as the well-being of employees' families, local communities, and the overall society. With the acceleration of global integration, CSR has become a main concern by the public, and is considered as an essential part of the business strategy. It …

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Corporate Governance And Earnings Management Before Share Repurchase Announcements In Singapore, Jian Ming Chua Jan 2010

Corporate Governance And Earnings Management Before Share Repurchase Announcements In Singapore, Jian Ming Chua

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Share repurchase in Singapore was legalized in 1998. It is well known that investors view share repurchase as good news. This study is based on share repurchase announcements from 2006 to 2009. The mean Cumulative Market-Adjusted Returns (CAR) for the period [0, +1] and [-1, +1] are significant at 1.25% and 1.33% respectively. In Singapore, there are positive abnormal returns following share repurchase announcements in support of the ―free cash flow‖ hypothesis. By using the Singapore Corporate Governance Index as a proxy, the weakly governed companies exhibit the strongest, positive and significant CAR of 2.62% for the period [0, +1]. …

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Firm-Specific Knowledge Resources And Competitive Advantage: The Roles Of Economic- And Relationship-Based Employee Governance Mechanisms, Heli Wang, Jinyu He, Joseph T. Mahoney Dec 2009

Firm-Specific Knowledge Resources And Competitive Advantage: The Roles Of Economic- And Relationship-Based Employee Governance Mechanisms, Heli Wang, Jinyu He, Joseph T. Mahoney

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The resource-based view of the firm emphasizes the role of firm-specific resources, especially firm-specific knowledge resources, in helping a firm to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, the deployment of firm-specific knowledge often requires key employees to make specialized human capital investments that are not easily redeployable to other settings. Thus, in the absence of effective safeguards and trust building devices, employees with foresight may be reluctant to make such specialized investments. This study explores both economic- and relationship-based governance mechanisms that might mitigate this underinvestment problem. Effective use of these governance mechanisms enables a firm to obtain greater performance from …

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A Survey Of The Oversight Of External Auditors Through The Lenses Of Audit Committee Chairmen, See Liang Foo, Luck Pia Ng, Kwong Sin Leong, Yang Hoong Pang Aug 2009

A Survey Of The Oversight Of External Auditors Through The Lenses Of Audit Committee Chairmen, See Liang Foo, Luck Pia Ng, Kwong Sin Leong, Yang Hoong Pang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

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Effects Of Country-Level Legal, Extra-Legal And Political Institutions On Auditing: A Cross-Country Analysis Of The Auditor Specialization Premium, Bin Sirinidhi, Chee Yeow Lim, Mahmud Hossain Jun 2009

Effects Of Country-Level Legal, Extra-Legal And Political Institutions On Auditing: A Cross-Country Analysis Of The Auditor Specialization Premium, Bin Sirinidhi, Chee Yeow Lim, Mahmud Hossain

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this cross-country study of the specialist auditor premium, which spans the US and 12 other countries, we provide evidence that country-level institutional strength increases average audit fees, but reduces the incremental demand for specialist auditors. This finding supports the hypothesis that strong institutions and the demand for specialist knowledge act as substitutes in providing the requisite assurance of financial statements.

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Audit Committees, Boards Of Directors, And Remediation Of Material Weaknesses In Internal Control, Beng Wee Goh Jun 2009

Audit Committees, Boards Of Directors, And Remediation Of Material Weaknesses In Internal Control, Beng Wee Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed in 2002 in response to a series ofaccounting improprieties at well-known companies such as Enron and WorldCom.One important aspect of SOX is the internal control requirements. SOX section302 requires that management evaluate the effectiveness of disclosure and controlprocedures, report results of the evaluation, and indicate any “significant changes”in internal controls since the last 10-K or 10-Q report (Securities and ExchangeCommission [SEC] 2002). In addition, SOX section 404 requires that manage-ment’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reportingand auditors’ attestation on management’s assessment be included in firms’ 10-Kreports (SEC 2003a). The heightened …

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The Association Between Institutional Ownership And Audit Properties, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Lynn Reesc Mar 2009

The Association Between Institutional Ownership And Audit Properties, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Lynn Reesc

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this study, we examine how institutional ownership affects the quality and riskiness of the financial statement audit. We hypothesize that institutional investors can influence corporate policy to employ governance mechanisms that reduce their monitoring costs. Our evidence shows that firms are more likely to hire a Big 4 auditor (our proxy for audit quality) when long-term institutional ownership is high, suggesting that long-term institutional investors view high quality audits as a viable means of improving corporate governance while reducing their direct monitoring costs. We find no association between auditor choice and short-term institutional ownership. Next, we find that auditors …

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Csr Singapore Style, Thomas Thomas Jan 2009

Csr Singapore Style, Thomas Thomas

Social Space

How well have Singapore companies embraced CSR beyond merely obeying national policies and laws? Thomas Thomas surveys the local CSR landscape and examines the current state of affairs.

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Social Enterprise: A Moral Framework For Leadership And Excellence?, Kevin Teo, Leng Leroy Lim Jan 2009

Social Enterprise: A Moral Framework For Leadership And Excellence?, Kevin Teo, Leng Leroy Lim

Social Space

We are in the midst of a global socio-economic transition and the way we think about the economy is changing. Here, Kevin Teo and Leng Leroy Lim trace the ideas and movements that have shaped beliefs about economics, business, and leadership, then challenge these assumptions to advance a new moral ethos for a new age.

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Economic Recession And Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) In Singapore, Peter Shergold Jan 2009

Economic Recession And Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) In Singapore, Peter Shergold

Social Space

As the global financial crisis deepens, many are questioning the relevance of corporate commitment to CSR. In this article, Professor Peter Shergold argues how CSR needs to be embedded into the business strategy of the corporate world in good times and bad.

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Chinese Philanthropy In Southeast Asia: Between Continuity And Change, Thomas Menkhoff Jan 2009

Chinese Philanthropy In Southeast Asia: Between Continuity And Change, Thomas Menkhoff

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

What makes ethnic Chinese philanthropy tick? Thomas Menkhoff looks at what drives prominent Chinese business leaders to give back to society and offers a glimpse of the changing face of ethnic philanthropy.

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Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo Dec 2008

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’ …

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