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This paper presents the results of a survey of 1000 U.S. Commercial Banks concerning their perception of and reaction to liability exposure. Also, the paper presents an application of the Modigliani‐Miller Capital Structure Model to illustrate the process by which liability exposure subjects the bank to financial leverage through lawsuits which may result in a dramatic reduction in shareholder wealth.

This paper presents the results from 149 responses to an August 1992 mail questionnaire survey of CEOs of the Business Week 1000 firms to examine their perception of liability exposure and reaction to it within the agency framework. The results suggest that liability exposure has resulted in a variety of actions to reduce exposure to potential liability from lawsuits. The actions should result in better monitoring by directors and officers with no significant increase in monitoring costs but instead, a significant decrease in the residual loss. The net effect should be a decrease in agency costs, consistent with maximization of shareholder wealth.

An appreciation of the legal environment becomes more important with each passing year for anyone involved in corporate finance. A casual glance at the morning newspaper will usually provide a quick reminder of just how much the two areas are interrelated. The current debate in the United States concerning health care legislation may well result in a package that has a tremendous impact on many companies and industries. Tax issues have been in the news recently as well. There have been a number of significant changes in tax regulations during the past decade, including the legislation just passed by the U. S. Congress in 1993. Smoking continues to generate considerable controversy, and one result has been courtroom battles between tobacco companies and local governments over antismoking ordinances. During the last year, the DuPont Corporation has been defending itself in court over charges that one of its products caused substantial damage to farm crops. Guilty or not, the risk and expense from product liability is an enormous problem confronting almost all companies today. Texaco settled a lawsuit with Pennzoil in 1988 for $3 billion in damages stemming from a battle for the control of Getty Oil. Texaco won that battle, but suffered a very serious setback in the courtroom.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the special issue which considers the impact that the global world has had on the profession of HRM.

In June 2009, the International Human Resource Management Conference was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Various IHRM papers were presented, and of these, many were subjected to a second round of reviews for this special issue. This special issue is made up of the best papers.

The article highlights that as IHRM has emerged as an academic discipline, a variety of debates and issues have come to dominate the literature. For practitioners, a long‐standing issue has been the delineation of specific practices to be used in the management of people within international organizations. Over time, practices have emerged, and texts today can readily be found that represent such practices for those working in MNCs as HR managers.

A number of concerns about HRM are raised in this issue, most of which are addressed by the papers chosen.

The outsourcing of non‐core business activities has recently mushroomed throughout the world as organisations seek reduced cost and strategic business advantage in an increasingly competitive marketplace. A component of this overall trend has been a dramatic increase in the extent to which real estate asset management functions of non‐property investment organisations have been taken over by ‘external service providers’. This study is the first in New Zealand to examine current practice and emergent trends and to identify outsourcing issues and problems in detail. Via a survey of 457 organisations, the reasons behind the trend to outsourcing are identified, as are the types of services outsourced; the basis of selection of service providers; the skills and attributes required of real estate professionals; and the success or otherwise of outsourcing experiences.

Throughout sport, the incidence of commercial sponsorship is increasing and shows no signs of slowing. This case study examines the negative consequences that can arise when a corporate stadium naming rights partner (Enron) becomes embroiled in financial and ethical controversies and how its collapse affected the team that uses the stadium for its home games (Major League Baseball's Houston Astros). It examines public relations strategies and tactics the Astros used to disassociate themselves from Enron and to recapture public support.