Corporate director liability and monitoring preferences

An important issue in the regulation of corporate behavior is its impact on the monitoring configuration selected by top management. In this article, we provide evidence consistent with the notion that the recent trend toward audit committee formation, and the movement toward Big-Eight auditors, are responses to increased legal exposure of the board of directors, notably stemming from the passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977. The costs associated with changes in monitoring configurations are also considered. In particular, it is argued that auditor assistance can substantially reduce the cost of audit committee formation. Because external auditors may have differential incentives to support audit committee formation, a hypothesis linking auditor identity and audit committee formation is offered. Recent auditor changes and audit committee formations of American Stock Exchange companies are examined to provide positive evidence for the theory. The data reveal a clear trend to form audit committees, and a movement to Big-Eight auditors. Underscoring the importance of auditor involvement, it is shown that audit committees were more likely to be formed given recent selection of a new Big-Eight auditor.     

Adapting consumer products to lesser-developed markets

Different types of modern consumer products require substantially different amounts and types of adaptation in preparing them for marketing in Lesser-Developed Countries (LDCs). This study reports conclusions drawn from an empirical study of 174 products marketed by 61 subsidiaries of multinational corporations operating in 22 different LDCs. Some product categories, such as foods and drinks, require adapting to fit them more appropriately for LDC marketing conditions. Other categories, such as cosmetics, undergo few adaptations, as their makers seek to reap the benefit of their products' established images in LDCs. Still other categories, such as pharmaceuticals, undergo minimal adaptations, because of the substantial advantages their makers attach to global standardization.     

From Experience: Demystify Creativity, Enhance Innovation

Creativity need not be a chance occurrence. The authors of this article believe there is a technology that facilitates creativity. It is a technology that can be learned and applied and managed. They describe the specific steps that they followed in helping a group of R&D professionals learn, apply, and manage the creative processes in the lab. It is a story of practical steps that dealt with the everyday realities of managing in a large corporation.     

Characteristics of growth and limitations in electronics

Since its origin about 75 years ago, electronics has grown faster than any other major engineering discipline. Analysis of the essential characteristics of electronics leads to the conclusion that the normal growth-limiting mechanisms are not operative in this area. The commitment of electronics to information handling is stipulated and it is concluded that electronic information processing is a new milestone in a field that is vital for human survival and that is as old as mankind. Though growth in electronics is open-ended, as in other engineering branches, developments within the field are subject to recognizable constraints. These constraints are identified and classified. Most of them turn out to be relative and sliding with the progress of time. The consequences of changing patterns of constraints are illustrated on past developments and their possible impact on future trends is brought forward.     

WTO"绿箱"政策与我国农业基础设施建设

根据乌拉圭回合达成的<农业协议>对进口农产品的关税进行了大幅度的削减,以至以往各国利用关税措施对本国农业进行保护失去了效果.而利用如进口数量限制、技术壁垒等非关税措施对本国农业进行保护容易引起贸易争端.所以只有在WTO框架下加强农业基础设施建设,才是符合农业发展的长久之计.     

Technology changes market boundaries

In the future, the microelectronics driven coalescence of product features and the blurring of market boundaries will lead to growing competition from products and technologies outside the firm's traditional realm of competitors. Further, this “Blindside Competition” can be expected to grow both in scope and impact during the 1980s. Nonetheless, firms which are able to identify the nature of blindside threats can reposition themselves to exploit the ever growing array of market opportunities created by technology. In this article, we identify the forces of microelectronics which are driving blindside competition, and suggest that as a result, adjustments in market orientation will be required.     

Code of ethics: The professional catch 22

In October of 1981, a jury in Ohio found an accountant guilty of negligence and breach of contract for violating the obligation of confidentiality mandated in the accountant's code of ethics and awarded the plaintiffs approximately $1,000,000. At approximately the same time, a jury in New York awarded a plaintiff in excess of $80,000,000 based in part on the failure of an accountant to disclose confidential information.     

Assessing techno-economic alternatives for rural development in Northeast Mexico

In the arid zone of Northeast Mexico are located some of the most socially deprived and economically marginal communities in the nation. This paper analyzes the current status of their social and economic organization and suggests alternative techno-economic subsistence activities that could improve productive capacity while preserving the fragile ecological balance between communities and exploitable natural resources. It shows how recent advances in computer mapping, linear programming, and techno-social modelling (SOPA technique) can assist decision makers and planners in choosing the best mix of social, economic, and technical advantages from an array of scenarios of change. A major finding is that the use of cooperatives as a managerial format is not always the best one to utilize, given the variability of community cohesiveness and varying organizational requirements of different techniques of exploiting animal and plant resources.     

“绿箱”背景下我国退耕还林政策的长期化

文章回顾并评价了几年来退耕还林政策思想的发展与政策后果,通过对比国外先进经验,提出我国应当研究WTO“绿箱”农业支持政策要求,使退耕还林政策长期化和法制化,并以之为基础建成中国“土壤银行”,制定“土壤银行法”,理顺农业经济管理体制,在配套改革基础上推动土地流转,推行农场经营制度,提高农民收入,稳定农村经济。