Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainable Corporate Community Investment

This paper presents the findings of research exploring the value and impacts of corporate community investment (CCI) through community partnerships. The research considered the community partners' perceptions of the value and impact of CCI. We adopted an inquiry paradigm utilising constructivist ontology, interpretivist epistemology and a case study method. In dialogue with Wesfarmers Ltd's community partners, the ‘realities’ presented by these beneficiary stakeholders were interpreted and understood (verstehen). While the CCI programmes with each of the not‐for‐profit organisations had different objectives, we were able to classify, under broad headings, the nature of the benefits to the community. One question highlighted is whether all corporate investing is the same? We found two aspects to this: the strategic fit for the community organisation of proposed investment and whether the corporate partner sought a relational as opposed to transactional approach to funding provision. Recommendations can be made for the funding structure deemed to be most effective from the community partners' perspectives. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Asleep at the Wheel (Again)? Bank Audits During the Lead‐Up to the Financial Crisis

We present the first large‐sample empirical evidence on U.S. auditors' responses to changes in entity‐level audit risk during 2006–2007, the period leading up to the financial crisis of 2008–2009. Treating fiscal year 2005 engagements as a pre‐crisis benchmark, we find that audit attention during fiscal year 2006 and 2007 bank audit engagements shifted in line with the shifting audit risks. One implication of these findings is that auditors were able to recognize and respond to financial statement impacts of the macroeconomic shocks that unfolded during the lead‐up to the crisis. Another implication is that auditors' failure to issue advance warnings of increasing auditee riskiness during the time leading up to the financial crisis more likely reflects limitations of extant accounting and auditing rules rather than a lack of auditor awareness or attention to those risks.     

Key business dilemmas & the marketing remit in business-to-business marketing services

Various studies examining the business trends and utilisation of marketing techniques have been undertaken by the authors in many fields of marketing services, including advertising, public relations and strategic marketing consultancy. Recently, these findings have been updated through a survey of practitioners' views. From these findings, this paper first explores the core underlying business trends and key resulting marketing issues facing these providers of marketing services. The discussion then expands to examine how these businesses themselves utilise the marketing toolkit, benchmarking current practices against the ‘textbook’ view of good marketing endeavour. For these providers of marketing services the understanding and use of marketing per se differ quite significantly, but all acknowledge the need to improve their own strategic and tactical marketing practices.     

Biotechnology in the textile/clothing industry – a review

Summary: This paper focuses on the use of biotechnology in the textile/clothing industry by identifying where and how such processes are already established and considers the latest developments, either in the research stage or in the early stages of commercialization. It has been found that biotechnology systems are already well known to those involved in fabric preparation, particularly as regards desizing. Enzymes used in detergent formulations have also been successfully used for the past 30–40 years. Most recent commercial advances have been in fabric finishing processes where handle modifications to cotton fabrics in particular are fast becoming established. Cutting-edge research falls in the areas of fibre modification and the generation of new fibres from natural sources, such as natural polyester from bacteria. The isolation of DNA from the shaft of hair fibres and the encoding of detectable specific antigens to designer labels is providing new ways of helping to combat fraud and counterfeit in the fashion trade. The treatment of textile effluent continues to be a major problem to the industry, but here, biotechnological developments in other industries are helping to provide some answers.     

Wily welfare capitalist: Werner von Siemens and the pension plan

The German firm of Siemens and Halske introduced many enterprising features of what later came to be known as welfare capitalism in the mid-nineteenth century. Profit sharing, annual bonuses, a pension fund, a reduction in work hours, and an annual party were all means to ensure a productive, trouble-free workforce. We investigate the reasons why Siemens and Halske introduced this internal welfare system. We focus on the by-far most expensive part of the welfare system: the pension fund introduced in 1872, more than a decade before the nationwide social security system was implemented in Germany. We find that the adoption of the internal welfare system increased labor productivity, and in addition discouraged workers from striking. We estimate that the company’s gains due to strike prevention and higher productivity were at least as high as the cost of the pension fund. This suggests that (1) the introduction of a pension fund is not inconsistent with simple profit maximizing behavior on the firm’s side and (2) increased labor unionization induced firms to introduce subjective components of workers’ remuneration packages.     

Judgment change during Delphi-like procedures: The role of majority influence, expertise, and confidence

This study investigates individual opinion change and judgmental accuracy in Delphi-like groups. Results reveal that the accuracy of judgmental probability forecasts increases over Delphi rounds (in terms of proportion correct and appropriateness of confidence) when statistical summaries or written rationales are provided from other members of an individual's nominal group, but does not increase in a control iteration condition (without feedback). Additionally, subjects who gave more appropriate probability forecasts on the first round exhibited least opinion change, although measures of confidence were unrelated to opinion change. Results also show that majority opinion exerts strong opinion pull on minority opinion even when the majority favours an incorrect answer (irrespective of the nature of feedback provided). The implications of these results for the utility and conduct of the Delphi technique are discussed, in particular, with respect to selecting panellists and choosing an appropriate feedback format.     

Spread behavior around board meetings for firms with concentrated insider ownership

For a set of firms with concentrated insider ownership, we find that (a) the bidask spread changes significantly around the board meeting dates, and (b) the actual number of transactions by insiders increases following the board meetings. We also find that there is a statistically significant relationship between spread and the number of insider trades surrounding the board meeting dates. Furthermore, neither an increase in the number of insider transactions nor any significant relationship between insider trading and the spread is observed for the same set of firms around non-board meeting dates.     

WILLIAM HUSKISSON AND THE RHETORIC OF FREE TRADE

The British economy was wedded to protectionism at the turn of the nineteenth century, and the disruptive impact of the Napoleonic Wars served to bolster the case for duties on foreign imports. Notwithstanding this unpropitious climate, major strides were taken in the march towards freer trade in the 1820s. This article underlines William Huskisson's significance in this transition, ascribing particular importance to the manner in which he presented his economic reforms and, relatedly, his intellectual legacy in the decades after his death.