Still in democratic deficit

The rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish electorate has given new vigour to the debate on the European Union’s widely perceived democratic deficit. Does the EU indeed have a serious democracy problem? What are the options open to the European political leadership and which of these should be acted upon?     

Public market finance for growth‐stage companies in emerging markets: The U.S. alternative IPO moves to fill the gap

Lacking from the options currently available to most growth‐stage companies located in the emerging markets of the world is effective access to public finance. Unlike the United States, these companies are shut off from access to their local public markets. Fortunately a solution exists in the form of an alternative initial public offering (AIPO) onto the over‐the‐counter bulletin board market of the United States (OTC BB). As the name implies, an AIPO is an alternative form of listing that allows companies in emerging markets to gain access to the deepest and most liquid capital market in the world. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Determinants of Success in the Development of Applications Software

In this article, the third in the trio of software innovation articles, Chris Voss outlines the key factors that determine whether a new software development is likely to be successful. His research draws on an innovation framework that has emerged from previous research. His results are similar to those of the earlier studies and suggest that the software innovation process has many demands that are common to innovation in other product areas.     

Work and The Most Terrible Life

Tolstoy’s Iván Ilych lies near death, regretting a terrible life but unaware of what he could have done differently while alive. Although motivated to work for all the wrong reasons–money, self-esteem, social acceptance, and escape from home–by all formal accounts he has been a highly responsible professional. This analysis of a work about work illustrates the relationship between meaningful work, professional responsibility, and meaningful life.     

Auditors' Affirmations of Compliance with IFRS around the World: An Exploratory Study*

It is widely believed that international financial reporting standards (IFRS) have been adopted in many countries, at least for the consolidated reporting of listed companies. However, in nearly all cases, what the rules require is some national or supranational version of IFRS. This might create problems for investor confidence and comparability. We examine what companies and auditors report concerning compliance with IFRS, focusing on the first full year of IFRS reporting by companies in the stock market indices of four major European countries and Australia. We find that, even when companies were complying with IFRS, they were generally not saying so, which seems to miss part of the point of the 35‐year project on international harmonization. In a small number of cases, auditors provided dual reports: on full IFRS in addition to the mandated reference to national GAAP where the latter corresponds with full IFRS. These cases were found only in Germany and the United Kingdom, and mainly related to companies that filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as foreign private issuers. We propose explanations for the general lack of dual reports and for the exceptions. We call for widespread adoption of dual reporting where a plain report on IFRS is not yet possible.