American Journal of Business: Volume 20 Issue 1

Learning from Failure

Philip R.P. Coelho, James E. McClure

Failures may lead to ultimate success in both nature and business. Just as dynamic ecosystems depend on death to replace senescent organisms with vigorous growth, the termination…

Recognizing Decline: The Role of Triggers

C. Gopinath

Existing models of decline and turnaround assume an automatic initiation of a turnaround strategy when decline occurs. However, extended decline over time suggests that the…

Qualitative Expressions of Magnitude: The Auditor’s Responsibility

T.S. Amer, Phil Drake

Publicly traded firms issue annual reports with significant portions that contain non‐numerical information (i.e., written expressions). AU Section 550 of the professional…

The Effect of Litigation on Independent Auditor Selection

Mary F. Allen, Mark Linville, David M. Stott

We examine the role of past litigation in the selection of independent auditors. Using a sample of persons typically involved in auditor selection, we find that any litigation…

A Success Versus Failure Prediction Model for the Real Estate Industry

Robert N. Lussier

The purpose of this study was to use the Lussier (1995) generic success versus failure (S/F) prediction model to develop a real estate industry specific model (S/F = f[industry…

International Diversification and Retirement Withdrawals

Danny M. Ervin, Larry H. Filer, Joseph C. Smolira

This study evaluates the success of the monthly withdrawal of funds from hypothetical retirement portfolios for the period January 1930 to December 2001. The objective of this…