John R. Kuhn and Bonnie Morris
With computer technology fast becoming the engine that drives productivity, IT systems have become more pervasive in the daily operations of many businesses. Large, as well as…
Abstract
Purpose
With computer technology fast becoming the engine that drives productivity, IT systems have become more pervasive in the daily operations of many businesses. Large, as well as small, businesses in the USA now rely heavily on IT systems to function effectively and efficiently. However, past studies have shown CEOs do not always understand how reliant their business is on IT systems. To the authors’ knowledge, no research has not yet examined if financial markets understand how IT affects the performance of businesses. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, the authors utilize the event study method to examine how financial markets interpret weaknesses in businesses IT systems. The authors examine this in the context of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act – Section 404 requirements and utilize the internal reporting requirement in the annual financial statement filing with the Securities Exchange Commission as a proxy to evaluate how the financial markets interpret IT weaknesses.
Findings
Using an event study, the authors show that the market does not necessarily understand and respond to the effects of IT weaknesses on overall financial performance of firms and thus challenge the efficient market hypothesis theory.
Originality/value
A second contribution is methodological in nature. IS researchers thus far have been using limited market benchmarks, statistical tests, and event windows in their respective event studies of market performance. This study shows shortcomings of that approach and the necessity of expanding usage of available event analysis tools. The authors show that using more than one market benchmark and statistical test across multiple time frames uncovers the effects that using a single benchmark and test over a single window would have overlooked.
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John R. Kuhn, Manju Ahuja and John Mueller
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of weaknesses in IT‐related internal controls to companies' overall financial performance and health.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship of weaknesses in IT‐related internal controls to companies' overall financial performance and health.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examines four accounting measures: liquidity, solvency, profitability, and market value. During the four‐year period of 2004‐2007, the authors identified companies that reported at least one material IT weakness and matched them with a similar set of companies with no reported material weaknesses. Additionally, for a subset of the companies in which a good match could be identified, a second data set was developed for comparison of companies reporting only material non‐IT weaknesses.
Findings
As expected, companies reporting IT weaknesses experienced less of an ability to pay short‐term and long‐term debts, earned lower profits, and possessed lower market value than companies with no weaknesses. Companies reporting IT weaknesses experienced worse financial performance and health than companies with non‐IT weaknesses.
Research limitations/implications
At the time of this study, most foreign registrants listed on US stock exchanges had not completed and filed their initial SOX 404 assessment with the SEC. Furthermore, small public companies (i.e. under a $75 million market capitalization) were not required to comply with 404 reporting requirements at the time of this study. In addition, Compustat provides information only on publicly traded companies.
Originality/value
The current study builds on IT governance research in two key ways. First, academia and industry must move past the discussion of IT governance design to examine the performance of IT governance efforts (i.e. effectiveness of controls audited by an independent third party) in relation to key financial performance and health indicators. Second, this study uses more objective measures of IT governance than were available in the past (i.e. the internal control and financial data reported in companies' audited financial statements). The results provide insight into the relationship of IT governance to overall financial well‐being.
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A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balanceeconomics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary toman′s finding the good life and society enduring…
Abstract
A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.
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Philosophers and historians of science, along with scientists themselves, have long been interested in the problem of theory succession: “How does one theory supersede another?”…
Abstract
Philosophers and historians of science, along with scientists themselves, have long been interested in the problem of theory succession: “How does one theory supersede another?” Concern with this general topic has led to the development of two major recent theories regarding the issue. These theories of theory succession have emerged principally from reflection on physics. In the eyes of most scientists, this is probably appropriate, since physics seems to offer (at least to most observers) science in its purest form.
Kristine M. Kuhn, Jeroen Meijerink and Anne Keegan
This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial…
Abstract
This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here the authors explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. The authors discuss challenges and opportunities regarding (1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, (2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and (3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, the authors identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.
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Martin Götz and Ernest H. O’Boyle
The overall goal of science is to build a valid and reliable body of knowledge about the functioning of the world and how applying that knowledge can change it. As personnel and…
Abstract
The overall goal of science is to build a valid and reliable body of knowledge about the functioning of the world and how applying that knowledge can change it. As personnel and human resources management researchers, we aim to contribute to the respective bodies of knowledge to provide both employers and employees with a workable foundation to help with those problems they are confronted with. However, what research on research has consistently demonstrated is that the scientific endeavor possesses existential issues including a substantial lack of (a) solid theory, (b) replicability, (c) reproducibility, (d) proper and generalizable samples, (e) sufficient quality control (i.e., peer review), (f) robust and trustworthy statistical results, (g) availability of research, and (h) sufficient practical implications. In this chapter, we first sing a song of sorrow regarding the current state of the social sciences in general and personnel and human resources management specifically. Then, we investigate potential grievances that might have led to it (i.e., questionable research practices, misplaced incentives), only to end with a verse of hope by outlining an avenue for betterment (i.e., open science and policy changes at multiple levels).
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Giuseppe D'Onza, Rita Lamboglia and Roberto Verona
This paper aims to analyse the relationship between the senior management and the information technology (IT) auditing undertaken in Italian banks, focusing specifically on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse the relationship between the senior management and the information technology (IT) auditing undertaken in Italian banks, focusing specifically on the internal IT auditing. The purpose of this paper is to investigate senior executives’ expectations regarding IT auditing, the techniques IT auditors apply to meet these expectations, the degree to which senior managers are satisfied with the auditing and the expectation gap.
Design/methodology/approach
We conducted 22 interviews with senior managers and IT auditors of seven Italian banks, comprising large and small financial institutions, to gain data for our analysis.
Findings
We found that overall, the IT auditors’ contributions satisfy senior managers, even though they still see room for improvement. They expect more support for the IT governance processes, specifically for the alignment between IT investments and business needs and between IT risk management and the value that IT resources provide. In addition, they want IT auditors to focus more strongly on IT security. To meet these expectations, IT auditors would have to improve their technical and non-technical skills. These skills will allow them to expand their activities, to be more proactive and to take on effective roles in IT governance processes.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights into the internal audit function’s evolving role and into banks’ IT audit activities. It also provides a valuable insight into senior management’s expectations regarding the role IT audit activities should play to support the profession and the banking policymakers, thus providing a better understanding of IT audit activities and improving these activities’ role.
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Richard Ek and Mekonnen Tesfahuney
In the Western thought tradition, the tourist has not been a subject worthy of intellectual musings and philosophical deliberations. Indeed, the tourist has been portrayed in…
Abstract
In the Western thought tradition, the tourist has not been a subject worthy of intellectual musings and philosophical deliberations. Indeed, the tourist has been portrayed in primarily derisive ways. Nietzsche’s remark, “Tourists—they climb mountains like animals, stupid and perspiring, no one has told them that there are beautiful views on the way,” epitomizes the dominant attitude. Why does the figure of the tourist elicit such negative reactions? Do the sentiments perhaps imply something else, or is the tourist a doppelgänger, not anomalous or marginal but normative—a paradigmatic figure? If so, then what can be said of the poetics and politics of the tourist conceptualized as a paradigmatic subject?
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This chapter introduces a metaphor—the house—and applies Habermas’ philosophy to examine the environment where knowledge production takes place. The analysis shows the dominance…
Abstract
This chapter introduces a metaphor—the house—and applies Habermas’ philosophy to examine the environment where knowledge production takes place. The analysis shows the dominance of “the systemic paradigm,” which is characterized by increased bureaucratization and commercialization. This paradigm has severe consequences for two core features of universities: the open-ended search for deeper understanding and the principle of autonomy. The chapter advances the idea of reclaiming the political dimension of the epistemic endeavor and presents a series of initiatives which help to advance tourism scholarship by non-conforming to the steering conditions of this paradigm and instead reclaiming the personal and subjective; promoting multiple knowledges; and building alternative platforms of knowledge production, cooperation, and dissemination.