Search results

The case is appropriate for courses in financial accounting and reporting, audit and assurance, forensic accounting, accounting practice and regulations and corporate governance. After studying the case, students should be able to explain the concept of control and power under IFRS; explain the concept of economic; discuss audit committee and external auditor independence issues and ways to strengthen auditor’s independence; assess the usefulness of the new extended audit report; and evaluate the role of gatekeepers such as financial analysts, audit committee, external auditor, institutional investors and regulators in enhancing the quality of financial reporting.

This case focuses on the accounting policy choices of the foreign associates of AirAsia Berhad. AirAsia Berhad is a phenomenal success, from a debt laden company to having been voted as World’s Best Low-Cost Airline in the annual World Airline Survey by Skytrax for eight consecutive years from 2009 to 2016 and the World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline in the annual World Travel Awards for four consecutive years from 2013 to 2016. In June 2015, an analyst report was leaked, and it led to heated discussion and exchanges in the market. The report questioned the non-consolidation of AirAsia Berhad associates. The share market also reacted. Various players in the market came into foray with their statements and opinions on the merit of the accounting policy choice by AirAsia Berhad. Whose views actually reflect the nature of accounting policy choice that is true and fair? Are these gatekeepers attesting to the accounting crux of substance over form?

Senior undergraduates; MBA; EMBA

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS: 1: Accounting and Finance

Strategic innovation through the deployment of a sophisticated collection of information systems and technologies to help accomplish financial inclusion for the urban poor.

This case is suitable for graduate courses on strategic planning and innovation.

Janalakshmi Financial Services (JFS) is a microfinance company that seeks to serve the financial service needs of the urban poor, a market segment with huge growthpotential. This operation involves large numbers of cash transactions making effective control mechanisms necessary. However, small margins make an innovative strategy necessary. JFS states that information technology (IT) is its DNA. The way in which the leadership team used a variety of ITsolutions to create an integrated set of well managed operations provides a very useful lesson in managing the process of strategic innovation.

The primary learning objective is to help the student understand the impact of strategic innovation through the use of information systems and technologies. This is achieved by helping the student to: connect the abilities provided by information technology to the social objective of financial inclusion; understand what financial inclusion means to the urban poor and how this segment differs from other microfinance and banking segments; assess the approach (related to organizational design as well as systems) JFS has employed to accomplish the objective of financial inclusion among the urban poor in India; analyse the systems and processes JFS has used to deliver services to its target market while making processes more transparent and efficient at JFS; and assess the risks to which JFS is exposed throughits business activity as well as the use of information technology.

Teaching notes are available; please consult your librarian for access.

This case builds on elements of project management (PM) – specifically project initiation – including the development of a project charter and stakeholder analysis.

The case was developed from secondary sources as well as first-hand knowledge of the project by one of the authors. This author was on faculty at a private university in the southeastern USA, teaching numerous courses in the pharmacy curriculum while also serving as the Community Practice Residency Director for community pharmacies around the state. While connecting with these organizations, additional revenue requirements and complementary services were frequent topics of attention, leading to a grant to assist pharmacies in building out such services. Through this grant, the author engaged in consultations with community pharmacies around the state, including the pharmacy highlighted via this case. Pseudonyms have been used for the business, and all individuals associated with it, to maintain anonymity. Secondary sources used for additional research include industry reports and related websites.

Richard has owned and operated a community pharmacy, Our Family Farmacy (OFF), for years. A changing industry climate has forced Richard to diversify the products and services he provides. In addition to the distribution of medicine and front-end sales of consumer goods, Richard is seeking to expand into a larger spectrum of healthcare services. After researching several different types of services, and after dealing with related personal family circumstances, Richard decided that OFF should begin their expansion by offering depression screening services. He turned initiation of the project over to his pharmacy intern, Caitlin.

This compact case is geared toward undergraduate- and graduate-level students taking courses in general management and, more specifically, PM. This case might also be used by students with a career focus in the healthcare sector, and could of particular interest for students in a pharmacy program. Classroom application should encompass discussions on the project initiation process group, particularly with the processes regarding the project charter deliverable and the identification and assessment of project stakeholders.

The case provides an introduction to how currency mismatches create exposures, why and how companies hedge (or do not hedge) those exposures, alternate valuation models and the use of foreign currency convertibles in funding a global expansion program. The case highlights the ambitious growth strategy of Wockhardt, a global biopharmaceutical company. In a bid to dominate the biopharmaceutical market, Wockhardt grew aggressively by acquiring companies all over the world. This expansion was funded by a mix of secured loans (bank borrowings) and unsecured loans including foreign currency (US dollar denominated) convertible bonds (FCCBs). Due to deteriorating business and economic conditions, the company experienced a sharp decline in profitability and stock price resulting in a debt overhang. The company had to restructure its capital structure in March 2009 to escape bankruptcy. Since FCCB holders did not agree to restructure the terms of the instrument, the company had to turn to senior lenders to restructure debt. The company’s management is faced with several options to deal with financial distress. The case asks students to evaluate those options. The case can be used to teach hedging foreign currency exposures, design of capital structure in rapidly evolving industries and dangers of financing R&D intensive ventures with convertible debt denominated in foreign currencies.

The case is based on secondary data sources. Information statements filed with the Securities Exchange Board of India, the company’s website, press releases and security analyst reports formed the basis for this case. Supplementary information was gathered from the CAPITALINE database, and websites of the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. Sources of information are documented appropriately in the case and teaching note. No names in the case have been disguised. The authors have no personal relationship with the company.

The case is suitable for courses in corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, international financial management, corporate restructuring and valuation at the graduate level. It can also be used in executive education programs.

The case provides an introduction to how currency mismatches create exposures, why and how companies hedge (or do not hedge) those exposures, alternate valuation models, the use of foreign currency convertibles in funding a global expansion program and the alternatives in corporate restructuring. Suitable references are provided in the teaching note.

This case raises the question: How does a company reasonably estimate and record entries for uncollectible trade receivables, and under what circumstances are receivables written off as uncollectible? The required accounting transactions for the case involve estimating a receivables allowance both as a percentage of sales and as a percentage of accounts receivable and making specific account judgments under the direct write?off method. The subjective issues involve analyzing and assessing a company's methods of collection and accounting for bad debts.

Our Daily Bread was a small boutique bakery producing a variety of daily and specialty breads. The company had excess capacity and was considering several options to increase revenues by entering the wholesale bread production business. The case allows students to perform process analysis in a multiproduct setting with seasonal demand and evaluate the impact on capacity, as well as the profitability of, potential wholesale orders. The case also enables analysis of the option to purchase new equipment. A teaching note and video supplement (OM-1018V) are available to registered faculty. The videos highlight the stages in bread making and provide a bird's-eye view of the entire operation. VIEW DEMO

The case describes the international problem of money laundering and summarizes U.S. bank regulations aimed at reducing money laundering activities. The introduction of H.R. 3886 in 2000 was one in a series of attempts to formalize U.S. banks' monitoring of their customers. The bill was prompted by a government report that named and criticized U.S. banks for laundering billions of dollars linked to drug trafficking, fraud, and organized crime. Interest groups in favor of H.R. 3886 were predominantly law enforcement agencies that viewed current anti-money laundering laws as ineffective. Groups opposed to the bill included the American Civil Liberties Union, which believed that the collection of more information about bank customers' activities was an invasion of privacy, and the American Bankers Association, which claimed that the legislation would impose unnecessary costs on banks. The case can be used to introduce the distributive politics framework for analyzing non-market issues and formulating nonmarket strategies in the context of government institutions. The epilogue reveals that H.R. 3886 died before it ever reached the House floor, but that an expanded version of the legislation ultimately passed---with the support of stakeholders who originally fought it---as part of the USA PATRIOT Act after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This stance reversal provides an opportunity to explore how events, public opinion, and the media can create windows of policy opportunity

Utilize a framework for analyzing options for non-market action – Formulate a strategy for nonmarket action – Recognize how public opinion influences the opportunity for non-market action through events and/or new information, political actors, media coverage, and policy windows

This case investigation used firsthand statements, reports, testimony and regulatory records. While widely publicized in the popular press, this case is based on primary documents. On their website, many documents were obtained from Wells Fargo’s Corporate newsroom, such as the internal audit report shared with shareholders and press releases. Most other sources were from US regulatory websites (.gov) or congressional testimony. In a few places, quotes and comments came from reliable journalistic sites that cite their sources and follow a journalist’s code of ethics and conduct, ensuring that the reported remarks and data were verified.

Since 2016, Wells Fargo Bank has faced multiple customer mistreatment investigations and resultant fines. Public outcry and distrust resulted from Wells Fargo employees creating hidden accounts and enrolling people in bank services without their knowledge to meet desired levels of sustained shareholder growth. Over the past five years, Wells Fargo has been fined and returned to customers and stockholders over $3bn. Wells Fargo executives spent the first year of the scandal citing improper behavior by employees. Leadership did not take responsibility for setting the organizational goals, which led to employee misbehavior. Even after admitting some culpability in creating the extreme sales culture, executives and the Board of Directors tried to distance themselves from blame for the unethical behavior. They cited the organizations’ decentralized structure as a reason the board was not quicker in seeing and correcting the negative behaviors of these ‘bad apple’ employees. Wells Fargo faced multiple concurrent scandals, such as upselling services to retirees, inappropriately repossessing service members’ vehicles, adding insurance and extra fees to mortgages and other accounts and engaging in securities fraud. As time has passed, the early versions of a handful of “bad apples” seem to be only a part of the overall “poison tree.”The dilemma, in this case, is who is responsible for the misbehavior and the inappropriate sales of products and services (often without the customer’s knowledge)? Is strategic growth year-over-year with no allowances for environmental and economic factors a realistic and reasonable goal for corporations? This case is appropriate for undergraduates and graduate students in finance, human resources, management, accounting and investments.

An active case-based learning pedagogical approach is suggested. The materials include a short podcast, video and other materials to allow the faculty to assign pre-class work or to use in the classroom before a case discussion.

This case focusses on internal controls necessary to prevent theft of cash collections. Troy Wheeler, assistant dean of the School of Business and Public Policy was asked to write a memorandum to the university’s internal auditor verifying that controls on the cash register in the school were adequate to prevent major theft. Troy wrote the memo, but the request awakened nagging concerns regarding the cash register. The more Troy thought about it, the more concerned he became about the potential for loss. Troy needed to identify the major weaknesses in the existing system and make feasible recommendations to improve control.

This case is based on the author’s personal association with the organization, observation, interviews of key figures in the case, and examination of relevant documents.

This case is appropriate for any graduate or undergraduate accounting class where internal controls are analyzed and documented. The case could be used in courses on internal or external auditing or accounting information systems.

Transnational entrepreneurs (TEs) are individuals that migrate from one country to another, concurrently maintaining business-related linkages with their former country of origin and currently adopted countries and communities. TEs are active social actors who enact networks, ideas, information and practices for the purpose of seeking business opportunities or maintaining businesses within dual-social fields, which, in turn, force them to engage in varied strategies of action to promote their entrepreneurial activities (Drori, Honig & Wright, 2009). This case research focused on the ethic, legal and cultural challenges TE has been facing when operating their business across boards.

The data used in this case were collected from mainly third-parties, including the office de la protection du consommateur; Office of consumer protection (OPC), securities and exchange commission (SEC) reports, news as well as marketing materials posted on public media by Sinorama Corp. and Vacances Sinorama. The authors conducted interviews with former employees of Vacances Sinorama to gain the understanding of the owners and the business challenges faced during the years of operation. The authors also communicated with the OPC through to obtain specific case-related information through the Canadian freedom of information channels. Triangulation of such information from multiple resources had been conducted to validate and support the details described in the case content.

A Chinese immigrant couple migrated to Canada and started Vacances Sinorama Inc. (“Vacances Sinorama”) in 2005. The focus of this case is on the expansion of their travel businesses after 2015. In 2016, they established a financing shell company, Sinorama Corporation (“Sinorama Corp.”), in Florida, USA, which became the holding company to the operation subsidiaries. Born during the 1970s and raised in Mainland China, the owners were culturally traditional and operated the company with the values and norms from their heritage culture. Vacances Sinorama successfully penetrated the local tourism market using Web-based technology and aggressive low-pricing strategies after the scaling-up strategies. However, Vacances Sinorama was operating in the red for several consecutive years (2015–2018). Sinorama Corp. received additional capital of US$4.4m by listing a portion of its shares on the NASDAQ over-the-counter market during 2016 and 2017. Canadian regulators began to investigate its operational and financing activities in 2017. They found a comingling of client and operation funds, which directly violated Canadian consumer protection laws. As a result of these violations, the license for Vacances Sinorama was nonrenewed in August 2018. The majority of owners fought to overturn the regulators’ decision and failed at all levels of appeal, administrative and judicial. This entrepreneurial endeavor ended with Vacances Sinorama declaring bankruptcy in October of 2018.

This multipurpose teaching case aims to assist students from an integrated approach whom are learning about entrepreneurship, international business, business law and business ethics. It is best suited for advanced undergraduate courses in entrepreneurship, business ethics, international business and business law as well as specific teaching modules in MBA courses.