THE EFFECT OF GOVERNMENT POLICY ON TOBACCO ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

This paper contributes to the very limited literature examining the factors determining tobacco companies' advertising strategies. The paper explores whether firms in the UK tobacco market significantly changed their advertising expenditure in the face of proposed changes to the UK and European Commission tobacco advertising legislation. The results suggest that changes in legislation have little impact on firms' advertising strategies for existing brands, but that legislative changes impact upon product launch dates. Our results also offer some information on the nature of firm interdependencies in the UK tobacco industry.     

Financial comparability and environmental diversity: an international context

Accounting and environmental management both hold improved resource‐use efficiency as an ultimate goal, but intermediate processes and objectives vary and consequently it is separately assessed within each discipline. This paper intends to make visible the globalizing trends in accounting practice, which aim to standardize financial reporting to produce comparable information so that shareholders can maximize their economic wealth. This paper seeks to contrast this comparability strategy with the apparent need for diversity in accounting information exhibited by actual accounting practices, the information needs of environmental management and, ultimately, the cultural needs of sustainable development. We argue that a more pluralistic model, that enables a holistic assessment of corporate performance and balances diverse stakeholder objectives, is better suited to an uncertain future. Implementation requires accountants and environmental managers jointly to create and test a new order of reporting. There are many practical challenges but most significantly accountants and environmental managers must combine to enhance the visibility and credibility of these diverse performance measures. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

Auditor Expertise and the Estimation of Dollar Error in Accounts

A major task that auditors undertake in formulating their audit opinion is to estimate the dollar error that might exist in accounts in light of their evaluation of internal control strengths and weaknesses. The research that has been undertaken to evaluate the quality of auditor performance on this task, however, has produced mixed results. The current study tries to overcome some theoretical limitations and measurement limitations that have undermined prior studies. Forty practising auditors rated their abilities on fourteen characteristics derived from a model of expertise. They then undertook an experiment where they judged the extent of dollar error that might exist in the inventories of a manufacturing company. They based their judgments on working papers provided to them that contained, among other information, an evaluation of the company's internal control system. An estimate of the 'true' dollar error in the inventories was calculated using a program that simulated the company's internal control and accounting system. This estimate was then used to calculate the accuracy of the auditors' judgments. Their ratings on the expertise characteristics were not related to their judgment accuracy. Their ratings were related, however, to their confidence in their judgment accuracy. Auditors who considered themselves more expert at the task were more confident in their judgment accuracy but they were, in fact, no more accurate than auditors who considered themselves to be less expert at the task.     

Segmental Reporting: A Preparers' Perspective

Following the introduction of Statement of Standard Accounting Practice 25, Segmental Reporting, companies must now report turnover, result and net assets analysed by geographical segments and business classes. This paper, unlike most previous research into segmental reporting, focuses on the preparers of accounts. The empirical study, based on information obtained by a questionnaire survey, has two objectives. First, to investigate the preparers' perceptions of the usefulness of segmental information and second, to identify which criteria were used to select reportable segments. The results show that the reported selection criteria have discarded or ignored many of the suggestions identified in previous academic literature and in the standard, in favour of pre-existing organisational groupings. The responses also indicate that preparers doubt the usefulness to shareholders of the reported information.     

Creating institutional meaning: Accounting and taxation law perspectives of carbon permits

Emissions trading schemes based on the idea that markets are an efficient means to allocate resources have created the need for a tradeable right, the carbon permit. The measurement and recognition of this right has the potential to significantly affect the financial reports and cash flows of entities and is therefore of interest to market participants. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the different meanings attached to the term, carbon permit, from two institutional frameworks, accounting and taxation, using discourse analysis of identified key documents available during the design and public discussion of the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in Australia.     

What Drives TBL Reporting: Good Governance or Threat to Legitimacy?

This paper provides two complementary explanations for the adoption of triple bottom line (TBL) reporting by Australian companies. The first explanation is that companies adopt TBL reporting to legitimise their relationship with society because of adverse publicity from the media. The second explanation is that TBL reporting is adopted because of the company's desire to achieve high‐quality reporting and transparency inferred by strong corporate governance. Companies with TBL reporting had significantly more adverse media coverage before implementing TBL reporting than non‐TBL companies. TBL reporting is also significantly and positively related to the existence of an environmental or sustainable development committee and the frequency of meetings of the audit committee.     

Employment effects of business dynamics: Mice, Gazelles and Elephants

Much of the theoretical work on industry dynamics focuses on the role of ‘noisy’ selection and incomplete information on firm entry and survival. We extend this research by looking at the impact of firm heterogeneity on employment effects for 320 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). We find that only start-ups with greater than 20 and less than 500 employees have persistent employment effects over time and only in large diversified metropolitan regions. Therefore, both the type of entry (Gazelles) and the characteristics of the region are important for employment growth.

The effects of new firm formation on regional development over time: The case of Great Britain

This paper re-examines the link between new firm formation and subsequent employment growth. It investigates whether it is possible to have the wrong type of entrepreneurship—defined as new firm formation which leads to zero or even negative subsequent employment growth. It uses a very similar approach to that of Fritsch and Mueller (Regional Studies, 38(8), 961–976, 2004), confirming their findings that the employment impact of new firm formation is in three discrete phases. Then, using data for Great Britain, the paper shows the employment impact of new firm formation is significantly positive in the high-enterprise counties of Great Britain. However, for the low-enterprise counties, it shows that new firm formation has a negative effect on employment. Of the 15 low-enterprise regions, eight are Scottish (of nine Scottish regions in our data base) and three are North East Counties (of four). Our findings imply that having the “wrong type of entrepreneurship” is indeed possible.

Principal Theory and Principle Theory: Ethical Governance from the Follower’s Perspective

Organizational governance has historically focused around the perspective of principals and managers and has traditionally pursued the goal of maximizing owner wealth. This paper suggests that organizational governance can profitably be viewed from the ethical perspective of organizational followers – employees of the organization to whom important ethical duties are also owed. We present two perspectives of organizational governance: Principal Theory that suggests that organizational owners and managers can often be ethically opportunistic and take advantage of employees who serve them and Principle Theory that focuses on guiding principles that are sometimes taken too far in organizations. In introducing these two new organizational governance perspectives, we offer insights into the value of rethinking ethical duties owed to organizational followers. Cam Caldwell received his Ph.D. from Washington State University where he was a Thomas S. Foley Graduate Fellow. Dr. Caldwell is Editor of the Academy of Management Ethics website and a member of the Academy’s Ethics Committee. His research is primarily in the areas of ethical leadership, organizational governance, and developing organizational trust. Prior to obtaining his Ph.D., Caldwell worked for 25 years as a city manager, human resource director, and management consultant. Ranjan Karri is Assistant Professor of Management at Bryant College. He received his Ph.D. in strategic management from Washington State University. His research interests include corporate and business strategies, ethical leadership and corporate governance. Pamela Vollmar is an undergraduate student at the University of Houston – Victoria majoring in Business Management. She has worked for 25 years as an electrical specialist for a major engineering firm.