Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant: Public Disclosure of Electoral Advocacy in Union Member Communications

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia Mancall-Bitel
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Krystyna Romaniuk

The contemporary era is characterized by revolutionary changes in the economy, technological progress, social and political life. Globalization exerts pressure on businesses and entire economies to increase their competitive strength which is defined as the ability to create knowledge. Knowledge creation and management became the new management paradigms. The responsibility for knowledge creation rests mainly upon the research and development sector. The aim of this study was to rank European Union Member States based on the level of knowledge created by their respective research and development sectors and to identify knowledge creation leaders. The analysis relied on EUROSTAT data for 2007-2011 and linear ranking methods with a reference standard. Our results indicate that Western European and Scandinavian countries are the leaders in the area of knowledge creation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuukka Järvinen ◽  
Emma-Riikka Myllymäki

SYNOPSIS The purpose of this study is to investigate whether SOX Section 404 material weaknesses manifest in real earnings management behavior. The empirical findings indicate that, compared to companies with effective internal controls, companies with existing material weaknesses in their internal controls engage in more manipulation of real activities (particularly inventory overproduction). This implies that the weak commitment by management to provide effective internal control system and high-quality financial information relates to a tendency to use real earnings management methods. Moreover, we find evidence suggesting that companies employ real earnings management (overproduction and reduction of discretionary expenses) after disclosing previous year's material weaknesses. We conjecture that the public disclosure of material weaknesses induces management to strive to mitigate the expected negative reactions of stakeholders to the disclosure by engaging in real earnings management, which is not easily detected or constrained by outsiders. Overall, this study suggests that material weaknesses in internal controls signal an environment where management is more inclined to employ real earnings management.


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