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After discussing recent academic attempts to assess the status of worldwide military transparency and accountability in nations which adopted open governance paradigms, this paper tries to show that such countries allegedly committed to democracy and open data should coherently fight for military transparency and citizen inclusion in the governance process, avoiding the prevalence of military secrecy over military transparency. The most important contribution of the paper is discussing the lack of military transparency, until now taken for granted as a traditional armed forces ’informal right, and proposing concrete definitions of military transparency and secrecy within the context of the open government partnership. In addition to the definitions, an exploratory model of how military accountability can affect military transparency has been suggested.

For the proposed endeavour, first a description on the context of open governance where the involved public defence sector is inserted is given. Second, notions of military transparency and secrecy are proposed. Finally, the paper discusses when military secrecy could be granted and what it means for military information to be unjustifiably kept secret. At the end, the urge of the citizen involvement to open the still insulated military governance systems is highlighted.

This paper proposes notions of military secrecy and military transparency and suggests the second term as a broader notion which includes the first. This paper also indirectly identifies the conditions for the inadmissibility of military secrecy and calls attention to the bad externalities of unjustifiably holding public information back.

The consideration of the proposed notions of military secrecy and military transparency could minimize the traditional excuse of military confidentiality that armed forces worldwide tend to not to convey public information to the public while making military accountability perfectly possible without overexposing its strategies regarding national defence.

Providing armed forces and citizens with concrete definitions of military secrecy and military transparency could not only help military institutions to develop a sincere transparency policy based on open government terms, but it could also guide interested media and citizens with their control and oversight tasks by establishing clear limits for alleged secrecy while releasing the borders for military transparency.

The suggested approach for military transparency and secrecy is not only adequate to the globalized strategy of open governance but also mainly a way to finally reward citizens’ often misused and manipulated trust.

It is the first attempt of an academic definition for military secrecy and military transparency taking into consideration the open government terms and aiming at improving military accountability.

We investigate whether auditor size is associated with the disclosure of internal control exceptions among Circular A-133 audits of nonprofit healthcare organizations. Our analysis is motivated by recent growth and transparency concerns within the sector. Using a sample of 1,180 audit reports from 2004 to 2008, we find evidence that audits performed by Big 4 firms are less likely to disclose internal control weaknesses than those performed by smaller firms. Additional analyses indicate this relation only remains statistically significant for a subsample of small organizations, possibly due to greater selectivity or lower efforts by the Big 4 auditors. We discuss the implications of these findings from an audit quality, market dominance, and client size perspective. The results are relevant to hospital financial managers seeking high quality audits at low cost.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the existence of a professional oversight body and certain country‐specific education regulations in auditing are associated with a country's perceived level of corruption.

Drawing on data from the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) database, the authors used the Mann‐Whitney U analysis technique to test the difference between countries' perceived level of corruption based on whether they have or have not developed professional oversight bodies and licensing regulations.

Results suggest that countries that have established an audit profession oversight body are, indeed, perceived to be less corrupt. Similarly, countries that require practical experience, academic study, and a licensing examination in order to practice auditing are perceived to be less corrupt. On the other hand, the analysis shows that requiring auditors to fulfil continuing education requirements is not significantly related to a perception of lower levels of corruption.

The paper provides important insights for policy makers, business leaders, education and the audit profession as a whole.

This paper provides some of the first empirical support for the relationship between corruption and the use of oversight bodies and licensing regulations in professional auditing at a country level.

Drawing on network and fiscal federalism theories, we investigated central government patronage and donor aid as antecedents of budget performance in local government (LG). A mixed methods design with data collected from 18 LGs, two ministries, and four donor agencies in Uganda was employed. Results revealed that both central government patronage and donor aid predict budget performance. Moreover, autonomy does not mediate the interactions as initially hypothesized. Implications for theory and practice are discussed and future research direction is provided.

The purpose of the paper is to look at the relationship between attitudes toward direct‐to‐consumer (DTC) advertising and its impact on consumer requests for a particular drug.

A sample of 154 consumers completed the survey on‐site at a pharmacy while waiting for their prescription(s) to be filled. Based on exploratory research (focus groups), survey items were developed to capture opinions of pharmaceutical advertising as well as the influence of DTC advertising on consumer behavior.

The findings show that consumers are skeptical of DTC advertising and believe that not enough information is provided about these products. Despite the high level of exposure and the opinions that these ads were effective and informative, few respondents believed that the ads motivated them to request these drugs or put them on a more equal footing with their physician.

The results provide useful information to policy makers, drug companies and researchers. Even though consumers appear to be critical of DTC advertising oversight, these ads appear to motivate consumers to seek more knowledge about drugs or medical conditions mentioned in the ads and request prescriptions from physicians.

This research fills an identified gap in the literature on DTC advertising and its impact on consumer decision making. Limited research has been done on the relationship between consumer perceptions of DTC advertising and its impact on consumer requests for pharmaceutical products.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the major provisions of the Dodd‐Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Obama on July 21, 2010.

This does not offer any empirical analysis of the new law given that it has just been adopted. The paper does provide discussion of the major provisions with some commentary on the arguments for an against each provision.

The new law represents the most sweeping changes in financial regulation and supervision in the USA since the Great Depression. The role of the Federal Government is greatly expanded in almost all aspects of the financial sector of the economy and will affect consumers, investors, and managers of financial service firms. Many feel that the effect of the law will be to adversely affect the competitive environment while others feel the additional regulation is necessary to prevent another financial crisis.

As the provisions of this law become more clear, much research will be needed to assess the true economic impact of the law and whether it is indeed providing the additional safeguards against a financial crisis.

This review of the new law offers a concise discussion of the major provisions of the recently passed law. This review is of value to those seeking an introduction to the law and its provisions and implications.

People rely on power plants to generate the electricity needed to run much of their lives. Power plants, though, are typically not the domain of the average citizen. Even if they stand near homes, schools, and other important places, the operations inside, not to mention the many social and environmental impacts outside, largely lack the scrutiny of most citizens. Is this a problem, especially when some governmental oversight already regulates the plants’ operations? The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) defines the main purpose of social studies education as creating effective citizens. This article describes an interdisciplinary unit of study by middle-grades youth about a proposed power plant in their city of Lansing, Michigan. It shows students scrutinizing the complex power plant issue through a variety of experiences and from different angles. While supporting NCSS’ stance on the teaching of citizenship, we call for a conception of citizenship extending beyond human communities and structures to the community of the earth and all living beings. We also encourage social studies teachers to take up the work of teaching for ecological citizenship.

Recent lapses in the management of high hazard organizations, such as the Fukushima event or the Deepwater Horizon blast, add considerable urgency to better understand the complicated and complex phenomena of leading and managing high reliability organizations (HRO). The purpose of this paper is to offer both theoretical and practical insight to further strengthen reliability in high hazard organizations.

Phenomenological study based on over three years of research and thousands of hours of study in HROs conducted through a scholar-practitioner partnership.

The findings indicate that the identification and the management of competing tensions arising from misalignment within and between public policy, organizational strategy, communication, decision-making, organizational learning, and leadership is the critical factor in explaining improved reliability and safety of HROs.

Stops short of full-blown grounded theory. Steps were made to ensure validity; however, generalizability may be limited due to sample.

Provides insight into reliably operating organizations that are crucial to society where errors would cause significant damage or loss.

Extends high reliability research by investigating more fully the competing tensions present in these complex, societally crucial organizations.

With Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), the self-regulation of the auditing profession was replaced with standard setting and oversight by the government. The authors focus on the audit fees literature to examine how this change impacted research trends over time and shaped different aspects of audits.

The authors utilized bibliometric and content analysis to identify research themes pre- and post-SOX.

The change in regulation contributed to an increased focus on clients and continued interest in engagement characteristics as added requirements emphasized the client's governance structure, the auditor's tenure and the type of services provided.

The prominent issue that emerged is how deficiencies in the audit processes and in the client's internal controls are translated into audit fees. The authors discuss regulatory initiatives pursued in other jurisdictions, including mandatory rotation of firms, joint audits and further limitations on non-audit services, as intended and unintended consequences of these requirements warrant further examination.

This study aims to identify which actors play leadership and brokerage roles in voluntary environmental collaborations and how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of actors is associated with such voluntary networking behaviours in Cambodia.

To achieve these purposes, this study mainly uses social network analysis to capture the properties of networking behaviours in the voluntary collaborative activities underlying three main environmental issues: waste disposal, energy and water pollution. The study focusses on the collaborative efforts undertaken by actors across multiple sectors: governmental organizations, for-profits and civil society organizations.

The results show that the government plays the leading role in voluntary environmental collaborations across environmental issues; however, the actual implementation is expanded to be undertaken by non-state actors. Moreover, CSR has positive associations with networking and brokerage roles; therefore, this study reveals the utility of various voluntary policy instruments.

This study demonstrates the role of governmental initiation and its influence on non-state actors, even for voluntary environmental tools. The CSR initiatives of private actors can also be supported and encouraged by the government, which will promote participation by private actors in voluntary collaborative networks and their leading role as network facilitators.

By understanding the positions and roles of each actor in the environmental collaborative networks, environmental policymakers can better understand the possibilities and the capabilities of each actor both to improve policy design and learning and to respond to policy changes effectively.

Voluntary collaboration and CSR are non-regulated policy tools; however, they can be promoted and introduced into society by governmental organizations, and they affect each other.