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This study examines shareholder and board motivations regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) to understand boards' stewardship approaches to environmental issues.

Using content analysis, the authors classify CSR motivations in all environmental shareholder proposals and board responses of Fortune 250 companies from 2013 to 2017 from do little (a shareholder primacy perspective) to do much (a stakeholder pluralism perspective). The authors calculate the motivational dissonance for each proposal-response pair (the Talk Gap) and use cluster analysis to observe evidence of board stewardship and subsequent environmental disclosure and performance (ED&P) changes.

Board interpretations of stewardship are not uniform, and they regularly extend to stakeholders beyond shareholders, most frequently including profit-oriented stakeholders (e.g. employees and customers). ED&P changes are highest when shareholders narrowly lead boards in CSR motivation and either request both action and information or information only. The authors observe weaker ED&P changes when shareholders request action and the dissonance between shareholders and boards is larger. When shareholders are motivated to do little for CSR, ED&P changes are weak, even when boards express more pluralistic motivations.

The results show the important role that boards play in CSR and may aid activist shareholders in determining how best to generate change in corporate CSR actions.

This study provides the first evidence of board stewardship at the proposal-response level. It measures shareholder and board CSR motivations, introduces the Talk Gap, and examines relationships among proposal characteristics, the Talk Gap, and subsequent ED&P change to better understand board stewardship of environmental issues.

This study’s purpose is to examine whether providing prior consulting services influences internal auditors’ subsequent assessments when providing assurance services to assist management in its assessment of internal control over financial reporting. A behavioral experiment is used, with internal auditors as participants. We provide some evidence that internal auditors who perform prior consulting services are less likely than others to conclude that an identified control deficiency is a material weakness, but only when the deficiency is directly related to the prior consulting services performed. Limitations include relatively small sample sizes and manipulation check failure rates that, although consistent with several prior studies, are somewhat high. If internal auditors have provided consulting services, they may want to consider limiting the assurance services provided to management that are more directly related to their consulting services. While prior studies have examined the effects of internal auditors’ role in designing internal controls on subsequent services, this is the first study to focus on the impact of providing internal audit consulting services on subsequent assurance services.

The objective of this research study is to investigate the impact of auditor dismissals and resignations on commercial lending decisions. The study also examines whether a reason given for a dismissal or resignation affects commercial lending decisions. Eighty-five commercial loan officers were given a scenario involving a hypothetical company loan applicant and were first asked to assess the level of risk associated with granting a line of credit. Next, they were asked to assess the probability that they would grant the line of credit. Five different questionnaire versions were created by varying information about an auditor change and the reason for the change. The study finds that risk assessments of and the probability of granting credit to the applicant company do not significantly differ due to knowledge about auditor changes. In addition, participants did not view auditor resignations differently than auditor dismissals. Finally, disclosure of a disagreement as a reason for an auditor change did not have an impact on lending decisions.

While academic research has been conducted on auditors’ ability to exercise professional skepticism in face-to-face client interviews, little is known about auditors’ application of professional skepticism in email communication with the client. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that impact auditor professional skepticism during client inquiries conducted through email.

A 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment was conducted with 69 undergraduate and graduate auditing students as surrogates for auditors. The experimental design crossed two levels of client expressed confidence (high and low) and two levels of client response timing to the auditor’s email inquiry (earlier than expected and later than expected).

Results indicate that management expressed confidence moderates the influence of management response timing on auditor professional skepticism and that auditor perceptions of client credibility mediate this interactive effect. When the client’s response is low in confidence, auditors perceive a later-than-expected response from the manager as less credible than an earlier-than-expected response, which leads to less reliance on management explanations, which signifies more skepticism. However, when confidence is high, response timing does not impact perceptions of the client’s credibility.

The results imply that junior auditors should be vigilant of how communication cues in client emails may impact their judgments. Even though management response timing and expressed confidence should not influence auditor skepticism per se, auditors seem to vary their level of skepticism with the timing of the client’s response when client confidence is low but not when client confidence is high, despite the information content of the client’s response being held constant.

This study contributes to the literature on professional skepticism by addressing the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s concerns about the need for auditors to exercise more professional skepticism in practice, particularly in an environment in which computer-mediated communication is increasing at a fast pace; and assists practitioners in better understanding the factors that influence the degree of skepticism auditors exercise when collecting audit evidence through email. The study should be of interest to audit firms, as it provides evidence on whether auditors use nonverbal cues such as chronemics, or time-related messages, in email communication to judge management and evidence reliability and credibility.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update of Resource Sharing services at the University of Wollongong (UOW) Library two years after a complete review was undertaken to provide a financially viable service relevant to the research support needs of University clients. This paper provides an update of the service two years on.

The UOW Library has been attentive to global changes in the resource sharing industry and document supply services. Unmediated resource sharing options are growing and assuming an increasing portion of requests received from clients. UOW’s involvement in new services has focused attention on the value of its collection, particularly the last national copy of a publication. By ensuring these unique titles remain in the collection indefinitely, they can be shared with other libraries through resource sharing arrangements. Ensuring staff workplace health and safety during the ongoing transformation in the delivery of services is an important element in the continued viability of resource sharing at UOW.

The 2011-2013 review of UOW Library Resource Sharing services has resulted in a viable and relevant service that is adaptable to the changing needs of UOW clients and institutional directions into the near future. Unmediated requesting continues to assume a greater share of the requesting workload, though staff expertise is equally important in supporting this service. A future challenge for the UOW Library is the rising cost of postage for the sharing of loans across institutions.

This case study demonstrates how an academic library can transform its resource sharing service for ongoing relevance and cost-effectiveness. Taking a holistic view of the service, in terms of people, costs and services, is important to ensure the overall viability of the service.

PERHAPS there is no library topic more interesting both to librarians and to the public whom they serve than the ethical influence of the fiction which forms such a large percentage of the circulation of the average Public Library. Opinions will probably always differ widely as to whether individual novels are moral or immoral, and yet it should be possible to establish some criteria of morality in fiction to which the majority of us would be willing to consent.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the microgeneration between Generation X and the Millennial generation. The research question addressed was “What makes the Xennial generation unique and how might the knowledge of these differences be beneficial to organizations?”

The research question was analyzed by a review of literature through the lens of generational theory. This study reviewed current literature on generational theory, years encompassing specific generations, and differences between recent generations in the workplace.

It was discovered the exact years distinguishing generations were unclear because generations fade into one another without a distinct starting and stopping point. This overlap creates a cusp generation or microgeneration. The presented findings suggest microgeneration employees could aid in reducing workplace generational tensions.

Organizations can benefit from creating flexible workplaces accommodating the desires of multi-generational employees while still meeting the goals of the organization as a whole. It is important managers approach generational differences with a clear perspective of what information is valid and what may simply be popular. It is crucial to remember employees are individuals who never completely fit a stereotype, generational, or otherwise.

Very few academic articles on generational differences mention cusp generations and none address their unique opportunities for organizations in the workplace. Members of microgenerations between major generational cohorts may be a key to reducing workplace friction between employees of different generations.

The purpose of this study is to identify best practices for innovative primary care models and to describe a potential future primary care (PC) model for Texas to address the burden of chronic disease in a population-based approach.

A systematic literature review was conducted and identified 1,880 published records through PubMed using 26 search terms. After abstract and full-text review, 70 articles remained as potential models.

Although there is already a severe shortage of physicians in Texas, emerging practice patterns and choices among physicians are likely to erode access to primary care services in the state. Health-care leaders are encouraged to consider models such as complex adaptive systems for team-based care, pharmacist hypertension care management program and combined nurse-led care management with group visit structure.

As with any study, this research has its limitations; for example, models that might work in one state, or under a unique state-funded academic medical center, might not be “do-able” in another state within the nuances of a different funding mechanism.

Results of this research provide a model for implementing IPCM for the state of Texas first and will guide IPCM planning and implementation in other states.

This study is “land grant-centric” and focused on carrying out the mission of a major, top-tier research university with an emerging college of medicine at an academic medical center.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which bullying victimization in school predicts depression in later life and whether this relation holds after controlling for other major childhood risk factors.

As no previous systematic review has been conducted on this topic, effect sizes are based on both published and unpublished studies: longitudinal investigators of 28 studies have conducted specific analyses for the authors' review.

The probability of being depressed up to 36 years later (mean follow‐up period of 6.9 years) was much higher for children who were bullied at school than for non‐involved students (odds ratio (OR)=1.99; 95 per cent CI: 1.71‐2.32). Bullying victimization was a significant risk factor for later depression even after controlling for up to 20 (mean number of six covariates) major childhood risk factors (OR=1.74; 95 per cent CI: 1.54‐1.97). Effect sizes were smaller when the follow‐up period was longer and larger the younger the child was when exposed to bullying. Finally, the summary effect size was not significantly related to the number of risk factors controlled for.

Although causal inferences are tentative, the overall results presented in this paper indicate that bullying victimization is a major childhood risk factor that uniquely contributes to later depression. High quality effective anti‐bullying programmes could be viewed as an early form of public health promotion.