The (mis)fit between the profile of internal auditors and internal audit activities

This study investigates whether there is a fit between the profile of internal auditors and the activities of the internal audit department (IAD). It also seeks to discover which type of internal auditors fit which type of internal audit (IA) activities. This is commonly referred to as the person-job (P-J) fit. Furthermore, this study investigates whether this (mis)fit is associated with the outsourcing/co-sourcing of IA activities and turnover within the IAD. Bringing strategic human resource management (SHRM) into IA can be considered as the key contribution of this paper. The results of this study are based on a questionnaire completed by 280 members of the Institute of Internal Auditors in Belgium. The results show that there is a fit between some characteristics of internal auditors working in an IAD and the activities of the IAD. The results also show that certain internal auditor characteristics fit with certain types of IA activities. However, the degree of fit varies. Furthermore, it was found that IADs that co-source/outsource were significantly more associated with a misfit between the profile of the internal auditors and the activities of the IAD, whereas a misfit was not significantly associated with a high turnover of internal auditors.     

Fair Valuation of a Guaranteed Life Insurance Participating Contract Embedding a Surrender Option

In this article we deal with the problem of pricing a guaranteed life insurance participating policy, sold in the Italian market, which embeds a surrender option. This feature is an American‐style put option that enables the policyholder to sell back the contract to the insurer at the cash surrender value. Employing a recursive binomial formula patterned after the Cox, Ross, and Rubinstein (1979) discrete option pricing model we compute, first of all, the total price of the contract, which also includes a compensation for the participation feature (“participation option,” henceforth). Then this price is split into the value of three components: the basic contract, the participation option, and the surrender option. The numerical implementation of the model allows us to catch some comparative statics properties and to tackle the problem of suitably fixing the contractual parameters in order to obtain the premium computed by insurance companies according to standard actuarial practice.     

Land Trafficking and the Fertile Spaces of Legality

Land trafficking, responsible for the unprecedented rate of urbanization in many Latin American cities, is often conceptualized through corruption as ‘abuses of public office for private gain’. While those involved in the practice rely at times on violence and illegality, their repertoire is sophisticated, allowing them to move in and out of legality as part of their cost–benefit calculations. In this article I argue that land trafficking is based on legalized corruption. I use an ethnographic approach to observe the strategic conduits that are technically embedded in, and opportunistically related to, different municipal processes to legalize illegality. I demonstrate how land traffickers use morphing possibilities between land tenure types (communal, private and government) and mimic development typologies that have gained legitimacy over time. I also show how conflicting, competing and humanitarian rationalities that characterize the state play a crucial role in promoting land trafficking, by grafting illegality and violations onto ‘formal’ practices.     

The management of sustainable development: A longitudinal analysis of the effects of environmental performance on economic performance

The literature on sustainable development has largely focused on investigating the relationship between companies' environmental and economic performance. However, many aspects remain unexplored, and empirical studies are far from reaching a consensus due to the heterogeneity of the environmental and economic measures and methodologies used. This study contributes to the literature on sustainable development by considering a panel of 998 US companies observed over the period 2003–2017 using both traditional panel data methods and an unconditional quantile regression technique. The empirical evidence confirms that environmental performance, measured in terms of environmental orientation and environmental innovation, positively affects returns on assets and equity. It also demonstrates that these returns change across quantiles and depend on the capacity of green companies to generate the same streams of income as nongreen companies but with less capital. In other words, green firms tend to be more efficient in generating future wealth.     

Corporate social responsibility for poverty alleviation: An integrated research framework

There is a growing demand by United Nations development agencies and governments for a higher engagement of firms in sustainable development goals, including that of eradicating poverty. Nevertheless, the social issue of poverty has not traditionally been covered by firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. In addition, there is a need to integrate theories in order to better explain pro‐poor CSR in developing countries. Relying on a review of both conceptual and empirical research articles on CSR for poverty alleviation, this study contributes to the CSR research agenda by proposing an integrated research framework for assessing and explaining a firm's contribution to poverty alleviation. Besides discussing the existing evidence, the following issues are critically analysed with the general purpose of obtaining the framework and suggesting avenues for future research: the assessment of a firm's contribution to poverty alleviation, types of pro‐poor CSR initiatives that could be adopted by firms, and the factors influencing a firm's contribution. The framework, which intends to be useful for future research, can also assist the United Nations to increase the firms’ contribution to its alleviating poverty sustainable development goal.     

Fundamental ratios as predictors of ESG scores: a machine learning approach

Decisions in Economics and Finance - Sustainable and responsible finance incorporates Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into business decisions and investment strategies. In...     

Mind the gap: line managers as effective or non‐effective talent spotters

Due to the centrality of line managers’ role in the talent identification process, this qualitative study aims to determine what effective and non‐effective talent spotters do differently from one another in relation with an ‘ideal’ talent identification model offered by the literature. A double‐blind design was applied to the sample designated by the Corporate Talent Management Director of a Latin American multinational firm. 20 senior and middle managers, some effective and some others non‐effective, who work in different countries, participated in the study. Findings show that effective talent spotters perform three key stages of the talent identification model and they do it extremely well: differentiation of potential from performance, matching process and design of developmental challenges. The clear differentiation of potential from performance constitutes the crucial stage since a fuzzy differentiation taints the following stages. Not only is it necessary to perform these key stages but they should be executed in line with the principles of the talent management literature. Recommendations for practice, including specific guidelines for Talent Managers are proposed.     

Labor Inspections in the Developing World: Stylized Facts from the Enterprise Survey

This paper empirically explores the incidence of labor inspections across registered firms in 72 developing countries. Results show that larger firms are more likely to be inspected than smaller firms. Interestingly, inspections are less likely to occur among firms with a larger share of low‐skilled workers, and that operate in industries with more tax evasion. We explore the heterogeneity of these findings across income and geographic groups, and conclude by briefly discussing the consistency of the stylized facts with competing theories of inspection agencies’ behavior.     

MarketBusting: strategies for exceptional business growth

If company leaders were granted a single wish, it would surely be for a reliable way to create new growth businesses. Business practitioners'overwhelming interest in this subject prompted the authors to conduct a three-year study of organizational growth--specifically, to find out which growth strategies were most successful. They discovered, somewhat to their surprise, that even companies in mature industries found rich new sources of growth when they reconfigured their unit of business (what they bill customers for) or their key metrics (how they measure success). In this article, the authors outline these and other moves companies can make to redefine their profit drivers and realize low-risk growth. They offer plenty of real-world examples. For instance: CHANGING YOUR UNIT OF BUSINESS: Once a conventional printing house, Madden Communications not only prints promotional materials for customers but also manages the distribution and installation of those materials on-site. Its revenues grew from dollars 1o million in 1990 to dollars 133 million in 2004, in an industry that many had come to regard as hopelessly mature. IMPROVING YOUR KEY METRICS-PARTICULARLY PRODUCTIVITY: Lamons Gasket, with dollars 80 million in revenues, built a Web site that radically improved its customers' ability to find, order, and pay for goods. The firm's market share rose along with its customer retention rate. The authors also suggest ways to identify your unit of business and associated key metrics and recognize the obstacles to changing them; review the key customer segments you serve; assess the need for new capabilities and the potential for internal resistance to change; and communicate to internal and external constituencies the changes you wish to make in your unit of business or key metrics.