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This paper aims to summarize a new alert issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (“OCIE”), highlighting the most common compliance issues relating to Rule 206(4)-1 (the “Advertising Rule”) under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”).

This study describes the compliance issues highlighted in the risk alert. OCIE identified these compliance issues as part of its “Touting Initiative,” an examination initiative launched in 2016 to examine the adequacy of disclosures that advisers provided to their clients when touting awards, promoting ranking lists and/or identifying professional designations (collectively, “accolades”) in their marketing materials. The OCIE based its findings on deficiency letters resulting from over 1,000 adviser examinations.

The risk alert provides guidance to advisers who are reviewing the adequacy and effectiveness of their compliance programs in light of the Advertising Rule.

This study provides practical guidance from experienced investment-fund lawyers. Although most experienced people in the industry will not be shocked by anything in the alert, the alert is a helpful reminder about the SEC’s continuing focus on these issues.

Le Musée national à Amsterdam possède un portrait de Gresham, un tableau à l'huile de toute beauté, peint dans la seconde moitié du seizième siècle par Antonio Moro. Sir Thomas Gresham, un financier anglais réputé (1519–1579), est considéré comme le fondateur de la Bourse de Londres. Cette ville était également le berceau des assurances. Si paradoxal que cela puisse sembler, il est un fait certain que l'assurance dont le rôle consiste à prévenir l'individu des risques et à lui donner une plus grande sécurité dans la vie sociale, trouve son origine dans un pays, également connu pour la passion des paris dans tous les domaines. Un des paris les plus fantastiques qui est entré dans la littérature, fut décrit par Jules Verne dans son livre «Le Tour du Monde en 80 Jours», où Phileas Fogg, un Anglais, après bon nombre d'aventures extraordinaires gagne enfin sa gageure.

This paper aims to cast the spotlight on a class of KM initiatives whose very success has ironically bred negative consequences not usually detected in the short‐term or on the surface.

Grounded theory approach was adopted in this paper since there is a lack of prior research in this area. Data was collected primarily through face‐to‐face interviews with personnel using purposive sampling. In addition to the interviews, archival data in the form of annual reports, web sites, in‐house publications and e‐mail correspondences were collected.

A typological framework which identifies four archetypes of KM initiatives, their success and dark side is developed. In particular, the dark sides include competency trap hyperbolic discounting dogmatism and social alienation and opportunistic behaviors and ethically‐questionable practices.

Given the exploratory nature of this study and the limited cases involved, the findings may likely be influenced by the peculiarities of the case, including the nature of the organizations, the state of the KM initiatives and the sentiments of the stakeholders at the point of data collection.

The message of this paper for practitioners is not to be easily contented with the early and outward form of success, but be cognizant and pre‐empt the dysfunctional outcomes as the KM initiative progresses.

This paper is one of the earliest efforts to examine the dark side of successful KM initiatives, a subtle KM implementation issue that receives little attention from practitioner and scholars alike.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” When Sir Walter Scott penned these words, he probably did not have diversity or universities on his mind. Those of us that are genuinely engaged in diversity, inclusion, equity, social justice, and/or multicultural education work can ruminate on his words and think of how university campuses tout their diversity initiatives and sometimes brag about being the “most diverse” are in actuality deceiving themselves and the constituents they serve. Even though diversity awareness has become an important topic in academe in recent years, so many campuses have largely failed to address it in any substantive way, thus creating an environment where students and even employees sometimes become disengaged. Davies (2007) argues that “university leaders who claim openness to diversity do not acknowledge the presence or participation of Others in activities that are characteristic of a free and democratic society” (p. 154).

Many institutions of higher learning honestly believe that in showcasing a campus program based around food, festival, or fun, they can check the diversity box. Yet, when diversity practitioners push the campus in becoming multicultural competent by addressing diversity outside the proverbial realm of “race,” questions like, “Why are they doing this?” arise. The struggle to sustain a comprehensive and meaningful campus diversity program is real for many agents for change. In order for diversity advocates to have a seat at the table, the campus attitude and practice of “diversity need not apply” cannot continue to exist.

Leaders within academia must be cognizant of their campus culture, which governs the law of the land. More importantly, it is vital to understand that sometimes your campus culture may not be receptive to cultural differences, although university verbiage may state, “We will promote diversity and maintain an environment that celebrates and values the many perspectives, cultures, and […]” Institutions of higher learning in this new millennium (twenty-first century) are deeply entrenched in organizational culture that has become its cornerstone over time, and is resistant to change.

Campus culture is real. Stewart and Dottolo (2005) state that universities should strive to ensure that any groups that fall outside of the traditional culture do not encounter an unwelcoming and threatening institutional environment. However, not every university strives or desires to create a campus climate where diversity is welcomed, celebrated, and/or embraced. It is paramount that educational institutions that serve diverse populations strive to become proficient in multiculturalism (Roach, 2004). Institutions of higher education are socially obligated to provide a learning environment for students with varied backgrounds (Bridges et al., 2008). It is essential that universities take a very close look at how they can contribute to the greater good of society by instilling a sense of worth in all students, regardless of ethnicity and other features of student identities. Williams and Swail (2005) argue that “attending college can be a liberating, developmentally powerful experience with the potential to increase individual productivity and, to some degree, the quality of life of the larger society” (p. 222). This can only occur if or when all aspects of diversity can apply and become an integral part of the university.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how reference to a rival or favorite sports team within cause-related sports marketing (CRSM) campaigns affects fans’ intentions to support the cause. The purpose of the studies is to assess the perils of featuring a specific team in league-wide activations of cause-related marketing.

The research comprises three experiments. Study 1 employs CRSM advertising to test fans’ responses when rival or hometown team imagery is featured by Major League Baseball (MLB). Studies 2 and 3 utilize a press release to activate a cause partnership in MLB and the National Basketball Association (NBA) and assess the potential influence of team involvement and schadenfreude toward the rival team.

Contrary to previous research, results demonstrate that rival team presence in league-wide activation can reduce intentions to support the cause effort across both leagues, but not in all circumstances. The influence of rival team exposure on perceived sincerity is moderated by team involvement with the cause in MLB, but not the NBA. However, sincerity consistently enhances cause support across all studies. While conditional effects of schadenfreude are noted, it is not a significant moderator of cause support.

This research exposes the nuance of league-wide CRSM activations. Specifically, the rival team effect on perceived sincerity seems to be league dependent, and subject to team involvement with the cause. Moreover, these results are limited to the leagues studied.

League administrators and their cause-related partners should exercise due diligence when promoting their affiliation using specific teams and levels of involvement with the cause.

These studies produce results that differ from the limited prior research within the domain of league-wide CRSM, and therefore advance the conversation regarding how best to activate such campaigns.

This study aspires to explore how the US stock market reacts to ISO 14001 certification announcements.

The paper employs an event‐study methodology on a sample of 140 announcements and matching control firms to study the impact of ISO 14001 certification announcements.

The results suggest that ISO 14001 certification announcements have a negative impact on stock performance. More importantly, they show that the shareholder wealth reduced due to these certifications announcements.

This study focuses on short‐term stock market reaction. Future studies should consider the entire sample of ISO 14001‐certified firms within the USA and use certification date to evaluate short‐ as well as long‐term improvements in shareholder wealth.

The results suggest that firms will need to educate shareholders about their actions towards the betterment of the environment. Such coordinated communication will ensure that the ISO 14001 standard is highly regarded, widely adopted, and even requested by shareholders.

Past empirical studies indicate that certified environmental management systems help organizations to reduce waste and pollution, thereby ultimately resulting in superior environmental and economic performance. At the same time, given its focus on the process rather than performance outcomes, opponents criticize ISO 14001 suggesting that it is just a label for image building. Owing to this dilemma, it is pertinent to evaluate how shareholders perceive a firm's attainment of ISO 14001 certification announcements.

Change in today’s organizations is occurring at a staggering rate. Often the responsibility to manage that change falls to the internal organization development or training professionals. This responsibility can be overwhelming, particularly without a change model or process in place. With mindful planning, however, there are a host of tools and techniques that can be applied to change initiatives to facilitate the management process. Keys for successful change management include thinking holistically to understand all of the change implications, focusing on the critical success factors that facilitate implementation, and striving to be an equal partner with the businesses implementing change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of the firm affect poor captive consumers’ repurchase intentions, and whether or not CSR activities may moderate established relationships that drive repurchase intentions.

A survey was administered to 201 poor microfinance borrowers at the bottom of the pyramid in India in a cross-sectional field study format. Multivariate regression is used to examine relationships between CSR and repurchase intention.

All else being the same, CSR activities aimed at the borrowers’ communities affects repurchase intentions positively even among poor captive borrowers. Further, positive perceptions of CSR to some extent mitigate the negative impact of the dissatisfaction on repurchase intentions. Unmarried borrowers, mostly female, were more moved by CSR impressions compared to their married counterparts.

Future research could identify other aspects of demographic differences in borrowers, and capture more about attitudes toward CSR and motivations for borrowing. Longitudinal study can establish causality that cannot be inferred from this cross-sectional field study. More diverse locations and organizations would offer wider generalizability. It will be interesting to examine if poor and captive customers would care about CSR activities even when such activities are targeted at recipients unrelated to them or their communities.

The dynamics of CSR in poor captive consumer communities are somewhat novel. Microfinance context makes it even more so as the borrower is both a client and a recipient of CSR simultaneously. Results suggest that like well-off consumers, poor and captive customers also care about dissatisfaction and CSR.