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Online developments ‐ Two new online services show the continuing onward march of this method of access to certain types of information for traders and investors.

This paper proposes a revised analytical model for accounting professionals that can be used to evaluate the financial well being of innovative companies that rely on earnings management practices (EM) for their growth. Through an analysis of corporate governance, financial reporting standards, and ratio analysis this paper reaches the conclusion that Enron extended previously researched earnings management practices that could have been detected in early 2000. Results of the analysis indicate that by using price book, price earnings multiple, net margin percentage, and return on assets, and taking into consideration the so‐called risk management activities which seemed to disguise highly volatile speculative derivative‐based activities, Enron was headed for implosion at least one year before its collapse.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the chief data officer’s (CDO) presence and firm performance, and the moderating effect of firm size.

The performance data for 64 treatment firms with CDOs and 64 control firms without CDOs is collected from Compustat database. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test is used to analyze the performance differences between treatment firms and control firms. Hierarchical regression method is used to test the moderating effect of firm size.

The results indicate that the profit ratios of treatment firms are significantly improved after the appointment of CDOs, and the profit ratios of treatment firms are significantly higher than that of the control firms. For the cost ratios, the findings provide some empirical evidence revealing two of the cost ratios are lower and only one ratio is higher for the treatment firms after CDOs’ appointment. Firm size moderates the relationship between the CDO’s presence and firm performance indicator, ROS, in the same direction. Firm size has no moderating effect on relationships between CDO’s presence and other performance indicators.

The findings provide practical insights that will help managers to realize the importance of CDOs and their work. CDOs would bring some cost to the firms, but they would bring more profit to firms. In addition, if for large firms, the CDO’s presence would bring more ROS.

The study explores the relationship between the CDO’s presence and firm performance. It is the first attempt to explore the CDO’s presence and the cost performance in the specific time period, and the study is also the first attempt to analyze the moderating effect of the firm size on the relationship between the CDO’s presence and firm performance.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

The objective of the research presented in this paper is to explore the factors associated with company failures in the context of the construction industry. To that end, the four quadrants of an ‘environment/response’ matrix developed by Boyle & Desai (1991. Journal of Small Business Management, 29, 33–42) are populated with Dun and Bradstreet's US business failure data for the construction industry. The study indicates that budgetary and macroeconomic issues represent 83% of the reasons for construction company failures. This implies that firms that take vigorous administrative measures to address budgeting issues and that react promptly to economic conditions by implementing appropriate strategic policies should be able to avoid failure. On the other hand, issues of adaptability to market conditions and business issues appear to have limited effects on company survivability (6% of the reasons for failure). This implies that administrative measures to fend off internal conflicts that originate for reasons beyond management's control and long‐term strategic decisions to regulate the firm's adaptation to market conditions can also help to prevent failure. An ‘input/output’ model appears to explain the business failure phenomenon better than the ‘environment/response’ one.

Research in both psychology and accounting indicates that humans, in making decisions, resort to using decision strategies known as heuristics. One heuristic of particular interest in the field of accounting is that of anchoring and adjustment. Empirical research has shown that subjects will sometimes bias judgements towards the anchor even in situations where the anchor is of little value or is irrelevant. Explains that the presence of a primary or recency effect in the context of the anchoring and adjustment heuristic may be the existence of an “internal anchor”. Combining these theories, hypothesizes that auditors would use their initial mindset as an anchor. A laboratory experiment indicated that auditors did employ the anchoring and adjustment heuristic; they did have a negative internal anchor; and the inertia effect could be used to predict whether a primary or recency effect would be present in a particular likelihood estimation. The results gave strong support for the idea that auditors place over‐reliance on negative information. However, the results indicated that students did not have an internal anchor, did not employ the anchoring and adjustment heuristic and that the inertia effect was not useful in predicting whether a primary or recency effect would be present in a particular likelihood estimation.

The internationalization of service firms is expanding dramatically, fueled by recent technological innovations and reductions of trade barriers. Drawing upon Dunning’s eclectic theory, firm‐ and location‐specific factors which have been found to be antecedents of internationalization of manufacturing firms are extended to determine their applicability to the internationalization of service firms. The hypotheses are empirically examined through a survey of 228 business‐to‐business service firms. Findings indicate that the firm‐specific factor of firm size and the location‐specific factor of market characteristics influence management attitudes toward operating internationally, which in turn influence the degree of internationalization of service firms. Practical implications, drawn from the results, are offered for managers of service firms who are facing the task of internationalizing.

The capital budgeting decision for a multinational enterprise needs to take into account concepts of business policy and competitive strategy. From the modern theory of the multinational enterprise, i.e., the theory of internalisation, it is recognised that proprietary firm specific advantages yield economic rents when exploited on a world‐wide basis. Yet the multinational enterprise finds these potential rents dissipated by internal governance costs of its organisational structure and the difficulty of timing and sustaining its foreign direct investment activities. This paper examines these issues by a focus upon parent‐subsidiary relationships and the strategic nature of the capital budgeting decision for a multinational enterprise.