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The aim of this article is to open a dialogue between several books written on Goldman Sachs and the academic literature.

Greg Smith's “Why I Left Goldman Sachs” and the French investigation of Marc Roche entitled “THE Bank: How Goldman Sachs Rules the World” are closely studied to identify recurring topics regarding the investment bank.

Three major dynamics are identified: the intense socialisation that every new employee encounters (almost an indoctrination), the cultural paradigm shift that Goldman Sachs underwent during the 1990s and 2000s and the intensity of the revolving doors between Goldman Sachs' managers and the public regulatory sector.

Focusing on revolving door dynamics, this article opens a dialogue with the academic literature allowing for a problematization: the constant circulation of personnel between regulatory institutions and regulated organisations generates a convergence of actors' habitus that weakens regulation as a whole.

Discussion of unification was for several decades focused on the costs rather than the benefits for Korea, until reports emphasizing the latter were published by Goldman Sachs (2009) and various Korean think tanks over the past four to five years. Although these studies can be evaluated positively in pointing out the benefits of unification rather than the concerns about the costs, several questions can be raised. This paper tries to evaluate the quality and credibility of existing studies and suggests a new approach for estimating the impact of unification. It proposes a computational general equilibrium (CGE) model to be based on the social accounting matrix (SAM) and input-output (IO) table for the North Korean economy, in order to produce more reliable estimates of the benefits and costs of unification and the impact of various cooperative activities between the two Koreas.

This article aims to ascertain the extent to which probabilistic decision making can enable managers to make crucial decisions in a world of uncertainty associated with globalization. Existing evidence suggests that probabilistic decision making can be deployed for risk management purposes if two conditions are satisfied: the decision maker must be aware of a complete list of possible future events; and the decision maker must be able to revise his/her expectations in the light of new information about such events. This article demonstrates that the satisfaction of these conditions requires a sound understanding of the sources of risks, quantifying those risks, and assessing the probability associated with each. To ensure that these conditions are satisfied, a risk management strategy must aim to maximize the amount of information that will be available at the time of taking the decision rather than wait to learn from outcomes. Outcomes‐based justification of decisions may no longer be an effective decision‐making strategy because the stakes involved, i.e. the risks and opportunities associated with globalization, are too high. An information‐driven, proactive decision‐making strategy requires higher levels of information pooling and exchange within companies.

This case study highlights why and how the Swiss banking sector played a crucial role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal. In particular, the paper illustrates how different actors in the Swiss financial sector neglected compliance guidelines and due diligence, thus effectively facilitating the laundering of misappropriated 1MDB funds. The purpose of this paper is to give bankers and compliance officers an overview of the methods money launderers use to circumvent compliance measures so that the Swiss banking sector can be protected more effectively from abuse. In addition, there is discussion whether current regulations, including banking secrecy, should be amended.

This paper used a content analysis methodological approach to collect data from media sources. Qualitative methods were used to analyze these sources.

The findings reveal that the Swiss banking sector played a major role in facilitating the siphoning and subsequent laundering of 1MDB funds by neglecting due diligence obligations.

This paper advocates a more consequential implementation of the existing anti-money laundering and corruption regulations.

A reworking of the 1MDB scandal should be of interest to compliance professionals in the banking sector and citizens that have been negatively affected or are concerned by the involved high-level corruption.

This paper is the first of its kind to study the role of the Swiss banking sector in the 1MDB scandal.

Global gender diversity and equality indexes have been developed to promote gender diversity and equality at the country level, but it is difficult to see how those indexes are applied to organizations on a daily basis. The purpose of this study is to examine the application of environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures for gender diversity and equality at the organizational level in a Korean context.

Based on the institutional theory, the authors reviewed ESG measures for gender diversity and equality of women funds in four countries (USA, Canada, UK and Japan) and examined The Women Fund in Korea through document analysis and interviews.

ESG measures in four countries’ women funds mainly assessed the percentage of women in the workforce, on boards and in leadership positions. In The Women Fund, gender diversity indicators consider the ratio of female to male employees, while gender equality indicators take into account gaps of male and female salaries and positions. This study’s impact analysis indicates that the companies invested in by The Women Fund had higher return on assets and return on equity than those without the fund.

Although women funds explored in this study exemplify the use of ESG measures to apply global gender diversity and equality indexes at the organizational level, research is needed to examine ESG measures and women funds and their associations. Possible topics include what needs to be measured in ESG, who should be involved, how ESG measures should be applied, what outcomes of using ESG measures would ensue in organizations and how ESG measures relate to regional and global gender diversity.

In promoting ESG measures that apply global gender diversity and equality at the organizational level, human resource development practitioners, as change agents, can help organizations develop socially responsible and ethical behaviors and transform organizational culture, practice and systems, which may influence organizations’ long-term survival and development as well as financial performance.

As the government’s support and policies guide and drive firms to develop and implement initiatives and programs, the launch and implementation of gender diversity and equality at the organizational level in the form of women funds require a certain level of collaboration between the government and the private sector.

This study on the application of ESG measures for global gender diversity and equality at the organizational level in the form of women funds is timely to engage organizations in dialogue regarding what needs to be done to promote women’s participation and leadership roles in organizations in Korea and other countries.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to explore the voluntary corporate governance role played by credit rating agencies, closing the ‘trust at a distance’ gap which might otherwise hinder fundraising in debt capital markets.

Methodology/approach – The chapter draws on Giddens’ system trust theory and Foucauldian perspectives of knowledge/power to unpack trust production as a discursive process in financial markets. Foucauldian discourse analytic techniques are used to examine texts deployed by or about Standard & Poor's, the global credit rating agency, leading up to the 2007 credit crunch.

Findings – The texts analysed illustrate the influence of rating agencies in producing trust as well as mistrust in debt instruments.

Research limitations/implications – Rating agencies produce trust by aligning with state regulatory systems, simplifying complex debt instruments with ‘AAA’ and other well-known mnemonics, as well as offering apparent transparency and guarantees.

Practical implications – While influential, rating agencies can only produce trust by proxy. Their contribution to the actual protection of investments is minimal.

Social implications – The analysis highlights the flawed nature of trust relations in debt capital markets as rating agencies’ primary customers are the arrangers and issuers of debt rather than the investors who seek protection from risk.

Originality/value – The chapter sheds light on the deliberate nature of trust production in financial markets. Five trust/mistrust production practices are introduced – protecting, guaranteeing, aligning, making visible and simplifying. Strategic trust production is established as part of corporate governance ideology in financial markets.

This chapter addresses issues within the marketing orientation business in Russia and identifies the demand for marketing models to increase consumer orientation. The chapter reveals the approaches used to organize effective marketing models including national business-specific features.

The authors show the importance of the marketing frameworks in emerging markets. A number of conclusions have been drawn on the most popular marketing tools.