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This paper aims to examine the extent to which publicly‐listed Caribbean companies provide social and environmental disclosures (SED), and the factors related to their disclosure practices. It is motivated by the dearth of studies of SED among publicly listed Caribbean firms.

All 55 companies with common shares listed on the main tier of one of the three major Caribbean stock exchanges in December 2010 were included in the study. The comprehensiveness of SED was measured using an unweighted 43‐item disclosure index. The research hypotheses were examined using multiple regression analysis.

The level of SED in the Caribbean was relatively low (M=33.7 per cent, SD=25.3 per cent). The amount of SED was positively related to firm size, industry affiliation, foreign influence and organizational culture. Firm profitability, national culture, importance of public equity financing, gender diversity, and director independence were not statistically related to SED comprehensiveness.

To promote the consideration of sustainability issues in national, corporate and individual investment and administration decisions, Caribbean governments may need to implement incentives for public companies to participate in targeted development initiatives and to provide more comprehensive social and environmental disclosures.

This is the first study to examine the comprehensiveness and determinants of SED by publicly‐listed Caribbean companies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among time pressure (TP), task complexity (TC), and audit effectiveness (AE). It is motivated by the conflicting results reported in prior TP studies.

The research hypotheses are developed using McGrath's interactional model of the Yerkes‐Dodson Law. Data are collected using a two‐treatment field experiment involving 63 public accountants.

The results show a negative, interactional relationship among TP, TC, and AE.

The first limitation concerns the non‐random procedure used to recruit public accounting firms and auditors. Second, there is the less than perfect operationalization of the TC construct.

First, the findings suggest that public accounting firms may need to resist the urge to reduce the time allowed for performing compliance tests, and provide training to improve the detection rate for all type of compliance deviations. Second, the fact that the rate of change in AE, in response to changes in TP, is different for the two audit tasks studied, suggests that it may not be appropriate for audit planners to assume a uniform TP effect across the various tasks involved in an audit. This insight has implication for the trade‐offs between the lower direct audit costs associated with tighter time budgets, and possible increases in audit risk associated with lower AE.

Two unique aspects of this paper are the operationalization of TP as a continuous random variable and the use of z‐scores to standardize the AE measure.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it describes the nature of internal controls (IC) in Christian and Hindu religious organizations (ROs) in Trinidad and Tobago. Second, the paper provides an assessment of the relative comprehensiveness of IC among the ROs examined and offers tentative explanations for the findings. Most of the information used in the paper was collected by conducting structured interviews with the chief financial officer(s) of each RO. This information was supplemented by published studies. The findings indicate that the ROs as a group have inadequate and patchy IC systems. Conversely, all the ROs examined had implemented many of the basic foundational elements of an effective IC system. This suggests that they could significantly improve the quality of their IC systems by instituting some fairly minor and cheap practices. The implications of these findings for administrators and researchers of ROs are discussed.

This research provides accounting-ethics authors and administrators with a benchmark for accounting-ethics research. While Bernardi and Bean (2010) considered publications in business-ethics and accounting’s top-40 journals this study considers research in eight accounting-ethics and public-interest journals, as well as, 34 business-ethics journals. We analyzed the contents of our 42 journals for the 25-year period between 1991 through 2015. This research documents the continued growth (Bernardi & Bean, 2007) of accounting-ethics research in both accounting-ethics and business-ethics journals. We provide data on the top-10 ethics authors in each doctoral year group, the top-50 ethics authors over the most recent 10, 20, and 25 years, and a distribution among ethics scholars for these periods. For the 25-year timeframe, our data indicate that only 665 (274) of the 5,125 accounting PhDs/DBAs (13.0% and 5.4% respectively) in Canada and the United States had authored or co-authored one (more than one) ethics article.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the comprehensiveness and determinants of internet reporting by publicly listed Caribbean companies.

In total, 65 companies with common shares listed on one of the four Caribbean stock exchanges, were included in the study. The study examined the relationship between firm characteristics (size, industry affiliation, listing status, and CEO role duality) and the comprehensiveness of corporate internet reporting (CIR), while controlling for the importance of public equity financing, company age and profitability. CIR was measured using an unweighted 107-item disclosure index that focussed on web site usability, disclosure timeliness, disclosure content, and several advanced CIR features. The data were subjected to content analysis using descriptive statistics, contingency tables, and multiple regression analysis.

As a whole, publicly listed Caribbean firms seem to be in stage 2 of the internet evolutionary model presented by Hedlin (1999); most firms have a web presence, a majority of firms engage in CIR and very few firms are using social media, communication and processable reporting formats in their CIR. It was found that Caribbean companies, on average, satisfied only 63.1 percent of the items included in the index. As hypothesized company size and industry affiliation were positively related to the comprehensiveness of CIR. Conversely, both industry affiliation and listing status generated mixed results. Also, the importance of public equity financing was significantly and negatively related to the general content and timeliness dimensions of CIR.

The findings suggest that Caribbean governments and regulators interested in raising the profile of regional stock exchanges may need to implement incentives for public companies to engage in internet reporting.

This is the first study to examine the comprehensiveness and determinants of internet reporting by publicly listed Caribbean companies.

Traditional Craft Designs is a sole proprietorship located in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. The firm's owner, Ms. Debra Atwell was recently offered an attractive opportunity to lease space at the Crown Point International Airport, Trinidad and Tobago to establish a retail outlet. She then met with an officer of the National Entrepreneurship Development Company to discuss the opportunity and seek a $40,000 loan to finance the capital and operating costs associated with the proposed retail outlet. Students are required to assist Ms. Atwell with the preparation of historical financial statements and a financial analysis that must accompany her loan application.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which economically significant Caribbean and African firms provide human resources disclosures (HRD), and the factors related to their disclosure practices. It is motivated by the dearth of studies of HRD among firms in developing countries.

All companies with common shares listed on the main tier of the major stock exchanges in each country examined on December 31, 2013 as well as selected state enterprises were included in the study if their annual report, sustainability report or integrated report was available online. HRD was measured using an unweighted 174-item disclosure index. The research hypotheses were examined using multiple-regression analysis.

The level of HRD in the Caribbean and Southern Africa was relatively low (M=33.7 percent, SD=25.3 percent). The amount of HRD was related to organizational culture, firm size, industry affiliation, national governance environment and foreign influence. Geographical region, gender diversity and director independence were not statistically related to the amount of HRD.

Caribbean and African governments may need to implement incentives for economically significant companies to participate in targeted human resources (HR) development initiatives, to provide more comprehensive HR disclosures and incorporate HR consideration in their strategic decision making.

This is one of the first studies to compare the amount and determinants of HRD by economically significant Caribbean and African companies.

Naparima Company Limited (NCL) was an importer and wholesaler of grocery and household products in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. Following increasing competition and the adoption of more lavish lifestyles by its owners, the company had fallen on hard times. Its banker, First Republic Bank, had called its outstanding loans of $1.412 million and given the company 90 days to repay all sums outstanding. Also, several major creditors had threatened legal action to recover amounts payable. This had forced NCL to explore alternative financing arrangements and to devise strategies that would improve its financial situation.

The authors used both field interviews and secondary data when preparing this case. One of the authors was a consultant to the company as it worked to develop a restructuring plan. The primary data gleaned from that process, which included interviews with all three leaders of NCL and a review of the company's financial statements, was supplemented by the collection of secondary data about the industry and its competitors from interviews with the executive director of industry association, and information about the national economic environment from newspaper articles and library resources.

This case is suitable for senior-level undergraduate students in a capstone business course, and graduate students in small business management and family business management courses.

In this paper I begin to answer the neglected question of “When to downsize?” Specifically, is downsizing and the associated reskilling of workforces an appropriate response to technological discontinuity? Based on past organizational literature written about technological discontinuity, downsizing, and reskilling, I develop a theoretical framework that indicates when downsizing following a technological discontinuity will increase organizational effectiveness. Propositions are developed based on this framework. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for managers and future researchers.