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To explain a guidance update issued in February 2017 by the staff of the Division of Investment Management (Staff) at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on how robo-advisers may meet their disclosure, suitability and compliance obligations under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act).

Examines the update’s guidance on three areas – the substance and presentation of disclosures, the provision of suitable investment advice, and the adoption and implementation of effective compliance programs – and then raises practical considerations for robo-advisers.

The update reflects the Staff’s increasing concern about the potential risks of the robo-adviser platform and provides a listing of key issues that the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) – which recently added “electronic investment advice” as a new focus for its 2017 examinations – may zero in on when examining robo-advisory firms.

Robo-advisers should carefully review the Staff’s update to evaluate whether their firms’ operations address the guidance.

Practical advice from experienced securities regulatory lawyers.

To explain a recently settled administrative proceeding that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought against a private fund manager in connection with the use of fund assets to pay for the manager’s operating expenses.

Explains the major takeaways from the settled case, and places them in the context of prior administrative proceedings and public statements from SEC staff.

This case is the latest example of the SEC taking action against a private fund manager related to the improper deduction or allocation of expenses, and related disclosure lapses, and further cases are expected in the future.

Private fund managers should examine their practices involving the reimbursement and allocation of expenses and related disclosures to fund investors.

Practical guidance and explanation from experienced securities regulatory lawyers.

The purpose of this article is to explain why economists have neglected the corporation in their theorising. Adam Smith is the founder of mainstream economic theory. In Smith's eighteenth‐century world most things were produced by individuals or by family firms. Smith naturally took the individual entrepreneur as his theoretical unit of analysis, and Smith's theory was at least adequate for the times. But even though the economies of the English‐speaking world have evolved beyond the free enterprise of competing individual capitalists to the current system of corporate capitalism, economic theory has remained much the same. While the American economy is now composed mainly of huge corporate units of production, mainstream economic theory is still referring to “individual” producers. Other social sciences focus a great deal of attention on organisational and individual behaviour within the corporate form of organising economic activity. The work of sociologist Rosabeth Moss Kanter and of psychologist Michael Maccoby are excellent recent examples. Yet economics, at least the mainstream of the discipline, focuses upon the behaviour of individual entrepreneurs rather than corporate managers. In short, orthodox economic theory lacks a serious treatment of the corporation.

This paper asks the question, “What is the appropriate management value system for commerce in the increasingly complex global marketplace?” We argue that the current management orthodoxy is deficient in dealing with the challenges brought about by the growing number and increased cultural diversity of economic transactions in this new environment. As the justification for the current system is so frequently based on Adam Smith’s writing in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, we compare the current ideology of organizational life with that proposed in his The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In so doing, we argue that a form of international commerce based on Smith’s concept of “sympathy”, the innate need for each individual to care for others, is better suited to building the conditions necessary for human flourishing than is the existing value base. We propose an important initial step toward achieving a more sympathetic capitalism, the “No‐Harm Proviso”, and briefly speculate on its implementation.

This paper aims to bring to the fore the importance of feminist epistemologies in the history of the organization of management studies since the 1980s by following various intellectual moves in the development of feminist theorizing as they cross over to organization studies, including their analytical possibilities for reclaiming historically the voices of major women scholars, especially in doctoral seminars. The paper narrates these epistemological activities by mobilizing and reconsidering from the past to the present, the notions of “unmuting,” “mutating” and “mutiny.” It ends in a reflection addressing the state of business schools at present and why the field of organization and management studies needs “mutiny” now.

The paper adopts a narrative approach in which the voices of its authors appear to be central as they consider and reconsider over time their understanding of “unmuting,” “mutation” and “mutiny” as notions with analytical potential. This approach is influenced by Foucault’s “history of the present” but with contingencies brought about by feminist interpretations. The application of these notions is demonstrated by reclaiming and clarifying the epistemological underpinning in the works of three major women scholars as included in a doctoral seminar: Mary Parker Follett, Edith Penrose and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. These notions are further redeployed for their potential in institutional applications.

At present, the findings are discursive – if they can be called so, but the main motivation behind this writing is to go beyond discourse in the written sense, and to mobilize other activities, still in the realm of epistemological and scholarly work. These activities would legitimize actual interventions for changing business schools from their current situation as neoliberal entities, which mute understanding of major problems in the world, as well as the voices of most humans and non-humans paying for the foibles of neoliberalism.

The paper demonstrates the necessity of developing approaches for interventions in knowledge producing institutions increasingly limited by neoliberal premises in what can be said and done as legitimate knowledge. In doing this, the paper articulates the importance of keeping history alive to avoid the increasing “forgetfulness” neoliberalization brings about. The paper, in its present form, represents an active act of “remembering”.

It is a point of continuing debate whether the study of public administration can in any circumstances be graced by a disciplinary label. Rhodes (1996), for example, has argued that the study of British public administration was traditionally insular, dominated for a long period by an institutionalist tradition characterized by an interest in administrative engineering, but a distaste for theory. As Rhodes also observes, this position emphasized, albeit in a traditional sense, the political and ethical context of administration public administration existed within a wider framework of accountability relationships and political and moral responsibilities. We might add to this the way government and public administration was seen as linked within a framework of administrative law, which, while not formalized in the sense of continental Europe, was important.

Many small businesses don't have the time or money to think about crisis communications, but latterly, events in Ambridge and surrounding areas have shown that even the smallest family enterprise can become headline news. This chapter illustrates how to inexpensively plan for the unforeseeable, how to project calm in the face of an agricultural storm and how to clear up the mess (toxic or otherwise) afterwards. The presentation studies known business-based issues in Ambridge such as the Low Mead incident and touches on individual communications calamities like Brian Aldridge's enforced retirement. It will also cover potential reputation management issues, for instance, the heir to a local hotel empire is arrested for dealing Class B narcotics. The session will provide valuable insight to anyone with an interest in the news, local or national. In conclusion, with a small amount of planning, the business people of Ambridge can ensure that it doesn't have to be a literal case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

The purpose of this paper is to take a critical look at a recent e‐business initiative (eCRM) undertaken by a global technology solutions organization. After significant time and money invested in the initiative the project was cancelled. This paper will identify factors that the organization should have considered as part of the development and deployment of the initiative.

This paper is explorative in nature, and based on the case study methodology. The data was collected via an on‐line questionnaire of over 300 employees across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) involved with the delivery of eCRM.

The research has highlighted what the author believes are ten imperatives organizations must consider when embarking on major e‐business projects. The imperatives support an e‐business strategy framework that was developed through the research findings.

This research was conducted across one organization only. Although the organization was large (in excess of 300,000 employees) the research findings have not been corroborated through comparative research across other, similar organizations.

However, the findings have allowed the organization to refine the way they define and develop future e‐business projects.

The findings as presented in this paper are a result of looking at theory relating to change, technology, strategy, and knowledge enablement. This holistic view has allowed the author to identify a broader set of impact factors for consideration when driving significant technology integration. It is the belief of the author that these impact factors (imperatives) can be applied to other organizations.

This purpose of this paper is to take a critical look at a recent e‐business initiative (eCRM) undertaken by a global technology solutions organization. After significant time and money invested in the initiative, the project was cancelled. This paper will identify factors that the organization should have considered as part of the development and deployment of the initiative.

This paper is explorative in nature, and based on the case study methodology. The data was collected via an on‐line questionnaire of over 300 employees across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) involved with the delivery of eCRM.

The research highlighted ten imperatives organizations must consider when embarking on major e‐business projects. The imperatives support an e‐business strategy framework that was developed through the research findings.

This research was conducted across one organization only. Although the organization was large (in excess of 300,000 employees) the research findings have not been corroborated through comparative research across other, similar organizations.

The findings have allowed the organization to refine the way they define and develop future e‐business projects.

The findings as presented in this paper are a result of looking at theory relating to change, technology, strategy, and knowledge enablement. This holistic view has allowed the author to identify a broader set of impact factors for consideration when driving significant technology integration. It is the belief of the author that these impact factors (imperatives) can be applied to other organizations.