Homewonder Ltd: Shareholders Versus Other Stakeholders

Corporate social responsibility involves various economic and social issues. This case presents a dilemma of the trade‐off between economic benefits to shareholders and social benefits to other stakeholders. To respond to recent flat sales growth, as well as serious needs for cost reduction and meeting analysts' expectations, Homewonder Manufacturing Ltd. is considering a strategic plan to expand into Asia. To facilitate this plan, the CEO of the company proposed offshoring and outsourcing some business operations, as well as downsizing the company's current social programs. Various stakeholders will be affected by this plan. This case analysis requires an integration of the shareholder and stakeholder theories of the firm. It provides opportunities for students to consider whether relationships with other stakeholders are a salient corporate strategic concern, and perform costs and benefits analyses arising from this dilemma.     

Barbados Spirits Inc.

This case focuses on the audit of a subsidiary in Barbados of a Multi‐National Entity (“MNE”), a distiller in Toronto. The MNE is a large and important international client to the accounting firm. The firm provides both tax advisory and audit services to the MNE. The MNE, following advice of the accounting firm, has utilized an offshore related party to structure transactions that avoid taxes in Barbados. These related party transactions are a detriment to the interests of critical users of the financial statements, namely the minority shareholders and the tax authorities of Barbados. The auditor is now faced with evaluating the adequacy of the related party note disclosure and the completeness of the income tax provision. Independence issues of a self‐interest threat (importance of the client) and self‐review threat (evaluating the adequacy of the income tax provision based on tax advice provided by the firm) are explored.     

Comercio y trabajo a la luz del pluralismo del Órgano de Apelación de la OMC

Los Acuerdos de la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) pueden limitar la capacidad de sus Estados Miembros para reaccionar ante violaciones de los derechos y normas (internacionales) del trabajo tanto en su territorio como en el extranjero. Se expone aquí cómo el Órgano de Apelación de la OMC ha interpretado esos Acuerdos con un enfoque «pluralista», preservando el derecho de los Miembros a legislar, ampliando el alcance de las excepciones generales y atenuando los efectos desreguladores de ciertas disposiciones. Numerosas medidas de protección del trabajo podrían pues ser compatibles con las obligaciones de no discriminación del derecho mercantil internacional.     

She shares,but he does not: Gender differences in the sharing of charity‐related content on social networking sites

Online social networks are widely used methods of communication. This research examines gender differences in people's tendency to post charity‐related messages. In general, compared to males, females show more empathic concerns with online charity‐related messages, which increases their willingness to post messages on their online social networking sites. However, message framing is key. Females' higher tendency only holds for charity messages that focus on benefits to others or the feelings of others, not for messages that are self‐focused. This research also identifies one way of improving men's willingness to post. Messages that are framed by focusing on negative consequence appeals can increase empathic concerns, which can increase males' willingness to share online charity messages on online social networking sites.     

Individual and organizational learning from inter‐firm knowledge sharing: A framework integrating inter‐firm and intra‐firm knowledge sharing and learning

Literature has highlighted but not explored links between knowledge sharing and learning at inter‐firm and intra‐firm levels. Using the single case of an aviation refuelling company as the basis for our research methodology and collecting data through 34 semi‐structured interviews, we develop a framework that integrates knowledge sharing and learning at inter‐firm and intra‐firm levels. We show that intra‐firm knowledge sharing capabilities facilitate the diffusion of inter‐firm learning within organizations. Moreover, inter‐firm trust manifests in different forms that affect individual and organizational learning. The purpose of collaboration determines what a firm learns or discards. The findings are important for organizations facing a shortage of skills. © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender fatigue: The ideological dilemma of gender neutrality and discrimination in organizations

Although gender discrimination remains a feature of working life in many contexts, research on gender in organizations has shown that workplaces are often constructed as gender neutral. This poses an ideological dilemma for workers: how can they make sense of gender discrimination at work while presenting their workplace as gender neutral? This article explores that dilemma through an analysis of how information communication technology (ICT) workers talk about gender discrimination. Instead of denying gender discrimination, workers acknowledge it can happen but construct it as singular events that happened in the past and they place the onus on women to overcome such obstacles. Navigating the ideological dilemma around gender neutrality and discrimination, interviewees display what the article characterizes as gender fatigue. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Entrepreneurship and Earnings among Young Adults from Disadvantaged Families

Academicians and policymakers have argued that entrepreneurship provides a route out of poverty and an alternative to unemployment or discrimination in the labor market. Existing research, however, provides little evidence from longitudinal data on the relationship between business ownership and economic advancement for disadvantaged groups. I use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to examine the earnings of young business owners from disadvantaged families and make comparisons to young wage/salary workers from disadvantaged families. For young men from disadvantaged families, I find some evidence that self-employed business owners earn more than wage/salary workers. In contrast, I find that for young women from disadvantaged families business owners earn less than wage/salary workers. The results from these earnings comparisons are somewhat sensitive to the use of different measures of income and econometric models.     

Tourism and governance in Turkey

Tourism is speedily changing form, process, and structure. As a result of the globalization of its supply and demand, many countries have felt the need to reconsider related structures and processes, including the specific role of the state. This study indicates that tourism in Turkey developed in stages, constantly interacting with political, social, and economic components of the polity. During most of these stages, the state played a dominant role. But since the 80s, the dynamics of governance has triggered a gradual transformation from a basically state-sponsored and managed development to different forms of public–private partnership; a process curtailed, however, by the political culture.     

Ownership concentration,separation of voting rights from cash flow rights,and earnings management: an empirical study in Canada

Drawing from models of Jones (1991) and Kothari, Leone, and Wasley (2005), this study examines the relationship between Canadian corporate ownership structure and earnings management from 1995 to 1999. There is evidence of a nonmonotonic relationship. The concentration of voting and cash flow rights with the ultimate owner first increases earnings management, but as the level of ownership concentration increases, earnings management decreases. There is also a positive correlation between earnings management and voting and cash flow rights divergence. This is particularly evident when the gap between voting and cash flow rights is high. Copyright © 2008 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Directors’ and Officers’ Liability Insurance and Aggressive Tax‐Reporting Activities: Evidence from Canada

This paper examines the relationship between directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (D&O insurance) and firms’ aggressive tax reporting. Using large Canadian public companies listed on the TSX300 and relying on several measures to capture aggressive tax‐reporting activities, including GAAP effective tax rates, cash effective tax rates, and the total and residual book‐tax differences, I find that D&O insurance exhibits a strong negative relationship with the GAAP effective tax rates and a strong positive relationship with both the total and residual book‐tax differences. However, there is generally no evidence showing that D&O insurance is associated with the cash effective tax rates. I interpret these results as indicating that D&O insurance reduces the tax expenses reported in the financial statements but not the actual tax paid. In other words, D&O insurance contributes to financial tax management but not to cash tax savings. Further tests in this study reveal that firms with fluctuating D&O coverage limits engage in more aggressive tax reporting than other firms, suggesting that managers may consider the level of D&O insurance that they purchase when they make aggressive tax‐reporting decisions.