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Article
Publication date: 17 July 2009

Montse Ferrer

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of USA Executive Order 13224, one of the most important US counter‐terrorist finance measures, on corporations operating in…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of USA Executive Order 13224, one of the most important US counter‐terrorist finance measures, on corporations operating in countries with designated terrorist organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

The effects of Executive Order 13224 are focused on the case of Chiquita Brands International, a major US banana‐exporting corporation that operated in Uraba, Colombia until 2004. The US Government prosecuted Chiquita for “engaging in transactions” with an illicit, Colombian paramilitary group considered by the US a Foreign Terrorist Organization and as a specially‐designated global terrorist. This paper presents the duress defense that Chiquita could have raised at trial under US federal law.

Findings

Executive Order 13224 was drafted hastily and under pressure leading to over‐inclusive language and over‐broad implementation. Chiquita's case suggests that Executive Order 13224, drafted with the intention of reducing terrorist funding, has made it possible for an extortion victim to be prosecuted for payments it has not chosen to make. This paper will suggest narrowly tailoring the language of Executive Order 13224 or providing an exculpatory provision.

Research limitations/implications

Counter‐terrorist finance measure Executive Order 13224 has not been sufficiently examined by scholars. Research on this topic should go hand in hand with enquiry into possible defenses for corporations operating in countries with designated terrorist organizations and having to make extortion payments.

Practical implications

Suggestions are put forward for corporations operating in countries with designated terrorist organizations as well as for drafters of counter‐finance terrorist measures.

Originality/value

Although the designation of terrorist organizations under the executive order has been discussed, few scholars have addressed cases of over‐broad application of the executive order. The unexamined case of Chiquita is a unique case in that the extortion victim, and not the extortion perpetrator, is prosecuted. Also, Chiquita was prosecuted for an activity (making extortion payments to the Autodefensas Unidas Campesinas that became a crime after Chiquita began its engagement with such an activity. Furthermore, examining this case thoroughly is important because it has repercussions on at least two public policy levels: the US' War on terrorism and the rights and remedies of corporations investing in countries with designated terrorist organizations.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 April 2022

Ebenhaeser Otto Janse van Rensburg, Reinhardt A. Botha and Rossouw von Solms

Authenticating an individual through voice can prove convenient as nothing needs to be stored and cannot easily be stolen. However, if an individual is authenticating under duress

Abstract

Purpose

Authenticating an individual through voice can prove convenient as nothing needs to be stored and cannot easily be stolen. However, if an individual is authenticating under duress, the coerced attempt must be acknowledged and appropriate warnings issued. Furthermore, as duress may entail multiple combinations of emotions, the current f-score evaluation does not accommodate that multiple selected samples possess similar levels of importance. Thus, this study aims to demonstrate an approach to identifying duress within a voice-based authentication system.

Design/methodology/approach

Measuring the value that a classifier presents is often done using an f-score. However, the f-score does not effectively portray the proposed value when multiple classes could be grouped as one. The f-score also does not provide any information when numerous classes are often incorrectly identified as the other. Therefore, the proposed approach uses the confusion matrix, aggregates the select classes into another matrix and calculates a more precise representation of the selected classifier’s value. The utility of the proposed approach is demonstrated through multiple tests and is conducted as follows. The initial tests’ value is presented by an f-score, which does not value the individual emotions. The lack of value is then remedied with further tests, which include a confusion matrix. Final tests are then conducted that aggregate selected emotions within the confusion matrix to present a more precise utility value.

Findings

Two tests within the set of experiments achieved an f-score difference of 1%, indicating, Mel frequency cepstral coefficient, emotion detection, confusion matrix, multi-layer perceptron, Ryerson audio-visual database of emotional speech and song (RAVDESS), voice authentication that the two tests provided similar value. The confusion matrix used to calculate the f-score indicated that some emotions are often confused, which could all be considered closely related. Although the f-score can represent an accuracy value, these tests’ value is not accurately portrayed when not considering often confused emotions. Deciding which approach to take based on the f-score did not prove beneficial as it did not address the confused emotions. When aggregating the confusion matrix of these two tests based on selected emotions, the newly calculated utility value demonstrated a difference of 4%, indicating that the two tests may not provide a similar value as previously indicated.

Research limitations/implications

This approach’s performance is dependent on the data presented to it. If the classifier is presented with incomplete or degraded data, the results obtained from the classifier will reflect that. Additionally, the grouping of emotions is not based on psychological evidence, and this was purely done to demonstrate the implementation of an aggregated confusion matrix.

Originality/value

The f-score offers a value that represents the classifiers’ ability to classify a class correctly. This paper demonstrates that aggregating a confusion matrix could provide more value than a single f-score in the context of classifying an emotion that could consist of a combination of emotions. This approach can similarly be applied to different combinations of classifiers for the desired effect of extracting a more accurate performance value that a selected classifier presents.

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. 30 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 July 2011

John Dorchester

This paper seeks to consider a significant market misconception and related errors commonly made by valuers, financial decision makers, and other users of valuation services. Its…

5911

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to consider a significant market misconception and related errors commonly made by valuers, financial decision makers, and other users of valuation services. Its purpose is to focus on the importance of relating the explicit requirements of market value and fair value definitions to the evidence required for a supportable opinion of either.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides conceptual foundations for the terms “market value” and “fair value” and reviews their meanings and applications in a historical context. Business cycles and the recent recession are used as foundations for illustrating how prices, such as for real estate, vary with cycles, but are not always directly indicative of either market value or fair value. The latter term has a long history, but has undergone recent definition and revision by the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) that are shown to closely align fair value with market value. A current controversy over the use of transactions as prima fascie, or perhaps the only indication of market value is discussed and the “market” of “market value” is examined.

Findings

The paper offers a new look at market evidence concepts that are time‐honored, yet have been largely lost or forgotten. The principal finding is that duress is not consistent with conventional definitions of market value or fair value, yet significant market evidence exists that duress is often ignored or improperly considered in valuations and financial decisions. The paper also concludes that the FASB's focus on “market participants” (sellers and buyers) as the prime source of Fair Value evidence is akin to the rules which have applied to market value for many decades. The paper concludes with a discussion of why transactions may be evidence of “a market,” but are not necessarily representative of the “market” or of fair value.

Originality/value

Market Value is a market protection against fraud, misrepresentation, and misunderstanding. Valuations must be performed in accordance with that definition – not as it is interpreted for personal gain or for any other interpretations of convenience, misunderstanding, or special purpose.

Details

Journal of Property Investment & Finance, vol. 29 no. 4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-578X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1979

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still…

Abstract

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 22 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 30 April 2019

S. J. Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas

Ethics is fundamentally a science of social and collective responsibility. Ethics concerns human behavior as responsible or accountable. Because of the nature of social…

Abstract

Executive Summary

Ethics is fundamentally a science of social and collective responsibility. Ethics concerns human behavior as responsible or accountable. Because of the nature of social interaction, certain members of the society will bear greater authority, and hence, greater individual and social responsibility than others. In our world, personal responsibility and social responsibility are hardly separable. Personal responsibility becomes responsibility for the world because the person and the world are inseparable. In this chapter, we use the term responsibility from a legal, ethical, moral, and spiritual (LEMS) standpoint as some promise, commitment, obligation, sanctioned by self, morals, law, or society, to do good, and if harm results, to repair harm done on another. Hence, responsibility from a moral perspective is trustworthiness and dependability of the agent in some enterprise. Its inverse is exoneration – the extent to which one is excused from commitment and repairing the harm done to others by one’s actions. We apply the theories and constructs of executive responsibility to two contemporary cases: (1) India’s Super Rich in 2014 and (2) the Fall and Rise of Starbucks. After exploring the basic notion of responsibility, we present a discussion on the nature and obligation of corporate responsibility into three parts: Part I: Classical Understanding and Discussion on Corporate Responsibility; Part II: Contemporary Understanding and Discussion on Corporate Responsibility, and Part III: A synthesis of classical and contemporary views of responsibility and their applications to corporate executive responsibility.

Details

Corporate Ethics for Turbulent Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-192-2

Article
Publication date: 17 March 2014

Hans Jochen Scholl and Beth Joy Patin

Disasters of catastrophic scope and scale have occurred more frequently in recent years. Governmental and non-governmental response management has struggled, and affected…

Abstract

Purpose

Disasters of catastrophic scope and scale have occurred more frequently in recent years. Governmental and non-governmental response management has struggled, and affected communities have severely suffered during extreme events. Colossal damage and loss of lives have been inflicted, and the recovery efforts require extended periods of time. In post hoc analyses, actionable information has been found a critical resource requiring resilient information infrastructures (RIIs) that do not break down even under extreme duress. RIIs encompass both tangible and less tangible (for example, social) elements. The purpose of this paper is to pave the way for empirical research on the subject and to conceptually develop a framework for the analysis of information infrastructures and their resiliency, when impacted by catastrophic incidents (also known as extreme events).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors review the literatures of disaster research and related fields. They synthesize the literatures from the information perspective and develop a framework of RII.

Findings

The synthesis revealed that extreme event-ready RIIs have to be redundant and resourceful both in terms of social, organizational, and knowledge assets as well as in the information and communication technologies. RIIs combine tangible and non-tangible elements, whose interplay is so far incompletely understood.

Research limitations/implications

Roles and criticality of RIIs under the impact of an extreme event need to be studied empirically.

Practical implications

The study holds the promise to be of great potential utility for responders and recovery managers as well as affected communities in preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts as timely and actionable information is still the scarcest and most sought resource during a catastrophic incident.

Originality/value

Disaster research so far has mostly focused on the technical, organizational, social, and socio-psychological effects of disasters. The authors are adding the information perspective as a unique and distinctive contribution to extreme event research, which connects the tangible elements of information infrastructures with its not so tangible elements, captures their interplay, and analyzes their role and criticality for the resiliency of the information infrastructures when under extreme duress.

Details

Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6166

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1987

J.R. Carby‐Hall

Civil wrongdoings with consequent financial and other loss or damage to employers, employees and third parties may result in the course of various trade union activities. These…

Abstract

Civil wrongdoings with consequent financial and other loss or damage to employers, employees and third parties may result in the course of various trade union activities. These day to day trade union activities take a variety of forms. The most common ones are inducement of breach of contract, conspiracy, trespass, nuisance, and intimidation. Each of these activities constitutes a tort which, unless the statutory immunities apply, would normally give rise at common law to an action for damages or, as is more frequent, enable the aggrieved party to obtain an injunction.

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 29 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Book part
Publication date: 19 October 2021

W. Brian Dowis, Ted D. Englebrecht and Mike Wiggins

Married couples receive tax benefits such as favorable tax rates, higher exclusions, higher phase-outs, and combined deductions. However, joint and several tax liability is a…

Abstract

Married couples receive tax benefits such as favorable tax rates, higher exclusions, higher phase-outs, and combined deductions. However, joint and several tax liability is a major issue facing these taxpayers. The term innocent spouse relief, within the Internal Revenue Code, is a direct result of one spouse failing to satisfy the joint liability for the married couple. Since both individuals are jointly and severally liable for the combined liability, the innocent spouse may be responsible for the liability in whole or in part. Our study examines this highly litigated arena of innocent spouse relief. To assist in this area of taxation, the Internal Revenue Service has provided taxpayers and tax practitioners with guidance. Revenue Procedure 2003-61 (2003-2 CB 296) outlines factors useful in determining whether innocent spouse relief should be granted. Additionally, this study creates a predictive model containing only three significant factors (economic hardship, knowledge/reason, significant benefit) capable of predicting with approximately 89% accuracy. These same three variables are significant after running multiple regression with p-values of 0.002 (economic hardship), 0.000 (knowledge/reason to know), and 0.001 (significant benefit). These factors provide valuable insight to practitioners when advising clients on challenging or accepting the Internal Revenue Service's decision. Additionally, abuse is marginally significant in the regression model. Also, judge gender and political affiliation are analyzed. However, the gender of the judge and political affiliation fail to be statistically significant using the chi-square test and regression model.

Article
Publication date: 23 November 2018

Katerina Gonzalez and Christoph Winkler

The purpose of this paper is to provide a process view into moments of entrepreneurial crisis within the venture formation process caused by environmental stressors. A new…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a process view into moments of entrepreneurial crisis within the venture formation process caused by environmental stressors. A new construct is conceptualized, the entrepreneurial breaking point (EBP), as a critical and potentially insurmountable moment of crisis caused by an entrepreneur’s appraisal of environmental threats during a new venture’s formation.

Design/methodology/approach

To develop the EBP within a process model, this study builds upon previous environmental frameworks by expanding upon and infusing a situated social cognitive approach with a stress perspective.

Findings

The theoretical framework developed sheds light on the complex person-environment interaction that can create an EBP, the process of experiencing an EBP, how individuals vary in their activation of coping resources to respond to an EBP and how an EBP can ultimately result in new venture exit, sustained performance or growth.

Practical implications

The paper discusses implications for entrepreneurs during these moments of crises, including suggesting the use of trusted, impartial third-parties to overcome individual weaknesses, increasing awareness of the various environmental threats and finding a balance between goal-related commitment and adaptation.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the existing literature by operationalizing and contextualizing a special case of socio-cognition under duress, filling an identified need for process work, exploring some reasons for EBP response variation across different entrepreneurs and elaborating on how the behavioral outcomes of an EBP may affect venture performance.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 57 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 November 2016

Arthur Jay Sementelli

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a Foucauldian concept into the theory and practice of OD and change management. The piece challenges Habermasian a priori assumptions…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a Foucauldian concept into the theory and practice of OD and change management. The piece challenges Habermasian a priori assumptions about organizational diagnosis and intervention.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper.

Findings

Literature points to the benefit of considering the possibility of parrhesiastic behavior in change management and organization development as part of a broader set of diagnostic tools.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should engage in practice driven test cases, interview practicing change managers, and refine the concept for use as a diagnostic tool.

Practical implications

Including discussions of parrhesia in change management and OD study and practices can better prepare change professionals for the realities of contemporary organizational practices.

Originality/value

To date, the links developed in this manuscript have not been made in the management literature, though it builds upon emerging literature in critical management studies and human resource management. It has the potential to influence both theory and practices of both OD and change management.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 29 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

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