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This paper aims to illustrate the impact of brand love on customers’ purchase intention in the presence of store aesthetics, store price image and customers’ demographic variables as moderating variables for hypermarket brand stores.

For achieving the objectives, a survey is conducted on the sample of 515 respondents those are the customers of hypermarket brand stores. The collected sample is analysed through structural equation modelling and moderation analysis by using AMOS.

The findings indicate various insights in terms of the results of moderation analysis. This study explains a significant moderation of store aesthetics, customers’ age and their local region for the brand love-purchase intention relationship in the research context.

The present study examines relevant moderators for brand love-purchase intention relationship by empirical means for hypermarket brand stores that is an under-explored researched context in Indian context. It adds considerable insights for academics and managerial practices in the arena of customer-brand love and emotional affiliation.

Wockhardt Ltd. is a global, research-based pharmaceuticals and biotechnology company headquartered in India. The company went through an ambitious period of growth, mainly using acquisitions as its primary inorganic growth strategy until the 2008 financial crisis. This period saw Wockhardt struggling to meet its financial obligations while at the same time confronting legal and regulatory challenges. Post this period, the company executed several strategic changes to its businesses to facilitate a recovery. The case asks students to assess Wockhardt’s strategic response to the crisis and its future success as a pharmaceutical company in an industry marked by intense competition.

The case is based on secondary data sources and publicly available information. The company’s data and its history over the past six decades have been examined. Newspaper articles, journal articles, company annual reports and analyst firm reports have been used to gather information and have been cited accordingly. Financial data have been obtained from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Prowess database.

The case highlights some interesting findings from Wockhardt’s handling of its financial problems and subsequent recovery process. Key insights come from its multi-pronged strategy to first stabilize and then continue to expand its core pharmaceuticals business by identifying new markets for its products and alternate channels for growth.

Previous cases on Wockhardt have focused on the financial aspects of the crises, particularly the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) process that was undertaken, the challenges of hedging foreign currency risk and the drawbacks of using foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs). In this case, we emphasize the unique aspects of Wockhardt’s business strategy, from its initial acquisition-based inorganic growth, its crisis response and management and finally the strategic execution of its recovery and continued expansion.

This paper aims to investigate how best to classify money laundering through online video games (i.e. virtual laundering). Currently, there is no taxonomy available for scholars and practitioners to refer to when discussing money laundering through online video games. Without a well-defined taxonomy it becomes difficult to reason through, formulate and implement effective regulatory measures, policies and security controls. As such, efforts to prevent and reduce virtual laundering incidence rates are hampered.

This paper proposes three mutually exclusive virtual laundering categorizations. However, instead of fixating on the processes undergirding individual instances of virtual laundering, it is argued that focusing on the initial locale of the illicit proceeds provides the appropriate framing within which to classify instances of virtual laundering. Thus, the act of classification becomes an ontological endeavour, rather than an attempt at elucidating an inherently varied process (as is common of the placement, layering and integration model).

A taxonomy is proposed that details three core virtual laundering processes. It is demonstrated how different virtual laundering categories have varied levels of associated risk, and thus, demand unique interventions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first taxonomy available in the knowledge base that systematically classifies instances of virtual laundering. The taxonomy is available for scholars and practitioners to use and apply when discussing how to regulate and formulate legislation, policies and appropriate security controls.

The Internet has introduced new ways of conducting business. Online auction of nonperishable experience goods (NPEG) items, which are generally rare, expensive and durable and need to be experienced to be valued, is one area that is undergoing significant change. Online auction platforms are encouraging participants to interact publicly in a social media type comment format. This paper investigates how such public interactions impact the auction outcomes of NPEG.

Auction records of vintage automobiles sold between 2015 and 2023 on one of the biggest online auction platforms in the USA were collected. The dataset contains multiple variables per record such as winning bid price, number of comments by sellers and browsers and various details of the automobile, for example brand, vintage and mileage. Ordinary least squares was utilized to analyze close to 42,000 records in the dataset.

The paper found that comments in general are positively correlated with the winning bid; it also found that online buyers value browser comments higher than seller comments. Furthermore, the relationship between vintage and origin country and winning bid is enhanced by browser comments.

This research furthers theory on two fronts. Firstly, we analyze how auction outcomes are impacted when buyers, casual observers and sellers interact with each other publicly when the auction is ongoing. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is one of the first studies that delve into participant interactions in online ongoing auctions. Secondly, we investigate how potential buyers utilize participant interaction information to guide their decisions about the value of NPEG.

This study aims to present a model for detecting and predicting creative accounting in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).

The authors conduct this research in three stages. First, the authors review the literature to determine the dimensions, components, indicators and techniques of creative accounting. Second, the authors conduct semi-structured interviews with experts using the fuzzy Delphi technique to obtain screening and reach a consensus. Finally, the authors develop a model to predict creative accounting by classifying the financial statements of the sample companies into two groups based on the use or non-use of creative accounting techniques, measuring the indicators determined in the previous stage, running various machine learning algorithms and choosing the superior algorithm.

The results indicate the usefulness of accounting information for detecting and predicting creative accounting and the relevance of several financial attributes as important predictors. The results also indicate the superiority of extremely randomized trees over other algorithms in predicting creative accounting and suggest that the primary purpose of creative accounting in Iran is earnings management. Contrary to the political cost hypothesis, large Iranian companies use creative accounting to inflate profits.

The present research also has several limitations that must be considered, and caution must be exercised in interpreting and generalizing the findings as specified in the revised manuscript.

This study’s implications are significant for policymakers, standard-setters and practitioners. By recognizing the detrimental effects of creative accounting on financial transparency within companies, policymakers can address existing gaps in accounting standards to minimize the potential for earnings manipulation. Consequently, strengthening internal and external mechanisms related to a firm’s financial performance becomes achievable. The study provides evidence of the need for audit firms to recognize the importance of creative accounting and consider creative accounting in their audit plans to prevent insufficient or even misleading disclosure by companies that extensively use creative accounting practices in their financial reporting. Moreover, knowledge of creative accounting techniques can help auditors assess audit and detection risks and serve as a valuable guide for reducing audit costs and improving audit quality.

Given that creative accounting practices distort the true or real accounting results, curbing creative accounting practices reduces corporate failures and could lead to the reduction of job losses and other social consequences.

This study uses a unique database in Iran to determine a model for predicting creative accounting using a mixed-method methodology, qualitative and quantitative, to identify creative accounting techniques and run various machine learning algorithms.

After the completion of this case study, students will be able to understand the importance of being close to local people when embarking on social business; understand that clear purpose and good decision-making can lead to great outcomes; and learn that innovation is crucial to ensure sustainability of both business and impact.

The case highlights the journey of Laiterie du Berger (LDB), a social enterprise in the agribusiness industry and the challenges faced as it expands and innovates. LDB’s roots lie in its commitment to social impact, aiming to uplift the Fulani livestock farmers and address socioeconomic issues. The company’s business model prioritizes people over profits, focusing on sustainable development and poverty alleviation. The LDB case showcases the challenges and opportunities in the agribusiness industry. LDB’s commitment to social impact, demonstrated through its support for farmers and sustainable farming practices, has been integral to its success. As the company expands and innovates, it faces critical decisions that require balancing financial growth with social responsibility. By embracing development, innovation and collaboration, LDB can continue to be a catalyst for positive change in the agribusiness industry while staying true to its roots and the principles that have defined its journey.

This case study is designed for bachelor’s and master’s degree students in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as MBA students. The case focuses on social entrepreneurship with the example of an agribusiness company located in Senegal, prioritizing social impact and quality of life. The case study explores the dynamics of the sector, including expansion strategy, innovation initiatives and the dilemma of balancing social mission and profit that social entrepreneurs may be facing. By analyzing this real-world situation of LDB, students will have the opportunity to enhance their decision-making skills.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship

Press reports have indicated that firms frequently underprice restricted stock and employee stock options. I test for underpricing of stock and options.

I examined a sample of 5,333 private firm stock and option issuances between 1985 and 2017. I tested for underpricing using two approaches: assuming investors have no special market-timing ability and assuming instead they have perfect market-timing ability.

I find evidence of widespread stock and option underpricing by private firms before they go public reflecting large discounts that exceed reasonable compensation for lack of marketability. Unreported underpricing is more frequent in the last pre-IPO private equity transactions that offer the last opportunity to give such discounts before the stock is publicly traded, but the discounts are greater in the earlier pre-IPO transactions where unreported discounts are presumably tougher for the SEC to detect. Underpricing is still detected even when the actual DLOMs are tested against a benchmark that assumes investors have perfect market-timing ability.

Firms frequently underprice restricted stock and employee stock options. Firms tend to underprice stock options more frequently than restricted stock, but restricted stock tends to be priced at deeper discounts when recipients are assumed not to have any special market-timing ability.

Private firms issue restricted stock and options as incentive compensation. Lowballing the valuation transfers wealth from outside stockholders to employees/insiders. Wealth transfers take place through the issuance of equity claims to employees/insiders before firms go public. I found that more than a quarter of the DLOMs exceed the theoretical maximum by, on average, between 16% (median) and 20% (mean). This finding raises two questions worthy of investigation. First, to what extent do the frequency and magnitude of DLOMs above the theoretical maximum depend on whether a board of directors obtains an independent appraisal of a stock’s fair market value? Second, if DLOMs above the theoretical maximum are observed even when the stock is independently appraised, how do appraisers justify such large DLOMs?

The wealth transfers that take place through the issuance of equity claims to employees/insiders before firms go public benefit employees/insiders at the expense of outside shareholders.

My paper is the first to furnish evidence of widespread stock and option underpricing by private firms before they go public; demonstrate that the unreported underpricing is more frequent in the last pre-IPO private equity transactions that offer the last opportunity to give such discounts before the stock is publicly traded and show that the discounts are greater in the earlier pre-IPO transactions where unreported discounts are presumably tougher for the SEC to detect.

This case study is based on fraudulent press releases by Turbo Global Partners, Inc., an Over the Counter (OTC) traded public company in the United States. After the fraudulent press releases, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suspended the trading of securities of Turbo Global Partners, Inc. and filed a complaint against the company in the US District Court in the Middle District of Florida. This case study presents accounting students (Intermediate II and auditing students) with various concepts related to fraud, ethics, and financial reporting. Specifically, this case study presents the concepts related to (1) fraud triangle; (2) the impact of fraud to various stakeholders; (3) debt extinguishment; (4) analysis of financial statements; (5) accounting for intangible assets; (6) analytical procedures; and (7) SEC investigation and actions. This case provides students with an opportunity of active learning as they analyze a real-world case of fraud and access professional literature such as Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) and SEC documents.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings and to determine whether potential threats on the CEO celebrity status negatively moderate the above association.

The authors collected tweets for 874 CEOs from 513 unique S&P 1500 firms. A panel data analysis was conducted on a panel with 4,235 observations from 2009 to 2020. We then tested the hypothesis with the ordinal logit model.

The empirical findings confirmed that CEO social media celebrity status is positively associated with corporate credit rating outcomes. Our path analyses revealed that CEOs with higher social media celebrity status have less incentive to conduct risk-taking behaviors and thus benefit credit ratings. When the rating agencies perceive potential threats to CEO celebrity status, including CEO myopia and CEO overconfidence, the association between CEO social media celebrity status and credit rating is weakened.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of CEO social media perception on credit ratings for firms' managers and capital market participants. Findings can help managers and firms improve their strategies for leveraging social media to release credit constraints. The debt market participants could adopt the CEO social media celebrity status and its concerned threats to setting debt contracts with an adequate price.

This is likely to be the first study that examines the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings. The findings of this study also reveal that social media certificated celebrity CEOs tend to be capable of enhancing firm revenue and have lower risk-taking incentives, unlike mass media certificated celebrity CEOs.