Incentive effects of stock purchase plans

Financial economists are interested in whether alternative compensation plans are adopted primarily for tax, incentive or signaling reasons. As most compensation plans have tax implications, examining for other effects is difficult. In this paper we examine the stock market reaction to employee stock purchase plans which are ‘non-tax advantageous’ and adopted for incentive/signaling reasons. The results suggest that (1) equity-based compensation schemes have a positive effect on shareholder wealth for reasons other than tax reduction, (2) a motive for adopting these plans is to align managerial and shareholder interests, and (3) equity ownership motivates key executives more than subordinate employees.     

Auditors gone wild: The “other” problem in public accounting

Following the scandals involving Enron, WorldCom, and Qwest Communications, the accounting profession has spent the past several years trying to get back on track. While Sarbanes-Oxley may improve the decision-making of audit professionals, and help prevent future large-scale catastrophes that hurt stockholders and bring down firms, there is another problem in public accounting that few consider and nobody has proposed to solve: deviant workplace behavior. Previous research describes deviant workplace behavior as the voluntary behavior of organizational members that violates significant organizational norms and, in so doing, threatens the well being of the organization and/or its members. Building from recent work in various business literatures, this is the first research since the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley to examine workplace deviance at Big 4 accounting firms. Taking a cross-disciplinary, collaborative approach, the authors endeavor to explain why workplace deviance has infiltrated accounting firms and how it is undermining their effectiveness and derailing their long-term prospects for success. After describing its genesis and effects, the authors prescribe several managerial strategies for preventing deviance and minimizing its effects on a firm.     

Singapore—An Asian economic miracle

The island’s rapid industrialisation over the past decade and its development as the main trade and financial centre of South-East Asia, supported by a phenomenal growth in tourism, constitute yet another Asian economic miracle.     

Subcultural influences on family decisionmaking

This investigation assessed Mexican-American and Anglo wives' perceptions of family decisionmaking roles for the purchase of eight different goods and services. This comparison was used to explore the impact ethnic subculture plays in consumer behavior. The findings indicate that ethnicity significantly affects wives' perceptions of family decisionmaking roles for expensive items, and that this is not just due to common associations with other variables. This is an under researched area in which cross-national differences and basic socioeconomic disparities are often inaccurately attributed to culture.