Crunch time for bank audits? Questions of practice and scope for dialogue

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the way in which auditing issues have been raised and addressed during the credit crunch and developing global financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach – Analysis is based on a review of the academic auditing literature, regulatory and audit reports, together with papers from the financial press. Findings – After highlighting the relative lack of media attention devoted to the external auditing function in the light of major corporate collapses, the paper considers what, contrastingly, is an active and ongoing series of responses to the current crisis on the part of auditing firms and the profession more generally. Through such analysis the paper explores a number of implications of the credit crunch for both auditing practice and research. Research limitations/implications – The paper is constrained in part by the rapidly unfolding nature of events, with important policy developments arising almost on a daily basis. The paper draws primarily on events up to the beginning of October 2008. Practical implications – The paper has important messages for audit practice and research, including the technical capacities of external audits in the banking sector, the contributions of standard setting bodies and regulatory oversight, and the scope for enhanced dialogue between such parties and audit researchers. Originality/value - The paper serves both to focus and stimulate analysis of the credit crunch on the audit profession. It demonstrates the complexity of contemporary practice and highlights the importance, especially from an educational perspective, of developing understanding of banking audit practice and associated regulatory interactions – including the presented possibilities both for research and enhanced academic‐practitioner dialogue.

Bizalom és vállalati teljesítmény. A bizalom szerepe az aszimmetrikus információk minőségének vállalati észlelésében és azok vezetői döntéshozatalban való felhasználásában = Trust and corporate performance

A kutatás azt a kérdéskört vizsgálja, hogyan járul hozzá a bizalom a vállalatok piaci teljesítményéhez. A vállalatok azon képessége, hogy felhasználják a rendelkezésükre álló piaci információkat nehezen másolható, tartós versenyelőnyt biztosít. A marketingmenedzserek a piaci információk hitelességét nehezen tudják objektív módon megítélni, mivel azokat jellemzően mások gyűjtik és rendszerezik számukra. A szerző kutatásában a menedzserek vállalaton belüli és vállalaton kívüli piaci informálódást célzó kapcsolatai esetén modellezte és empirikusan tesztelte a bizalom hatásait. Eredményei szerint a bizalom a vállalaton belüli és vállalaton kívüli kapcsolatok esetében is fontos mozgatórugója az információfelhasználásnak, jóllehet közvetlenül nincs hatással arra. Minél jobban bízik a döntéshozó az információ forrásában, annál jobb minőségűnek fogja észlelni a tőle származó információt. Az információ észlelt minősége meghatározza, hogy arra támaszkodnak-e a vezetők a döntések meghozatalánál. Azok a marketingmenedzserek, akik képesek bizalmi kapcsolatok kiépítésére, szélesebb körű, hiteles piaci információkra támaszkodhatnak a döntéshozatal során, amely hozzájárul a vállalat piaci teljesítményéhez. ____ We have limited knowledge on the potential pattern similarities/differences of trust’s role that may exist in information use obtained through intra- and extra-organizational relationships. This study addresses this question by investigating how trust leads to information use. Data from 338 intra-organizational and a sub-ample of 158 inter-organizationaldyadic information exchange relationships showed that trust is an important driver of the utilization of market information in both cases. Trust has no direct relationship to information use, instead has a strong indirect effect through a mediator, perceived quality of information. The effects of trustontheuse of information obtained throughinter- and extra-organizational dyadic relationships proved to be similar.

Phosphorus enrichment effects on interactions among the ecosystem components in a long-hydroperiod oligotrophic marsh in Everglades National Park

Hydrology and a history of oligotrophy unite the massive landscape comprising freshwater marsh in Everglades National Park. With restoration of water flow to the Everglades, phosphorus (P) enrichment, both from agricultural and domestic sources, may increase nutrient load to the marsh ecosystem. Previous research of P enrichment of Everglades soil, periphyton, and macrophytes revealed each of these ecosystem components responds to increased P loads with increased production and nutrient content. Interactions among these ecosystem components and how P affects the magnitude and direction of interaction are poorly understood and are the focus of my research. Here I present results of a two-year, two-factor experiment of P enrichment and manipulation in Everglades National Park. I quantified biomass, nutrient content, and production for periphyton and macrophyes and found macrophyte removal drives change in nutrient content, biomass, and production of periphyton. Periphyton removal did not appear to control macrophyte dynamics. Soil chemical and physical characteristics were explained primarily by site differences but there was an enrichment effect of soil porewater nitrite + nitrate, nitrite, and soluble reactive phosphorus. Flocculent materials production and depth were significantly affected by macrophyte removal where depth and production were significantly greater with the no macrophyte treatment. The dominant macrophyte of the marsh, Eleocharis cellulosa, increased more in the unenriched marsh than in the enriched marsh. The combination of these findings suggests that dynamics in floc and periphyton are controlled primarily by the presence of periphyton and that this relationship is significantly affected by low-level P enrichment. These results may be valuable in their application to both managers and policy makers who are involved in the Everglades restoration process. ^

Health beliefs and health care options of disparate black communities in the United States

According to the 1999 U.S. Census, there were approximately thirty-three million African Americans and approximately 1.8 million non-Hispanic black immigrants in the United States. The 1997 U.S. Census estimated that there were as many as 554,000 foreign-born Haitians and 505,000 foreign-born Jamaicans living in the United States, mainly residing in Florida and New York. The U.S. Census claims that blacks are one of the largest emerging ethnic groups in America constituting at least twelve percent of this country's population. Because of this increase, their specific health beliefs and health care options are increasingly nationally significant. ^ In the present intra-black and inter-ethnic study, two hundred seventy African Americans, Haitian immigrants, and Jamaican immigrants residing in South Florida were quantitatively and qualitatively surveyed in order to investigate their health beliefs and health care options. According to the reviewed literature, the three black ethnic groups researched in this study have not been compared or contrasted before in relation to these beliefs and health care choices. ^ As was discovered by the present research, differing health beliefs and health care options were the cultural products of the ethnic differences of the researched communities. It was expected that differing health beliefs among the researched black groups might indicate disparate patterns of health care utilization of either western or non-western models. Additionally, it was projected that by investigating the health beliefs and the health care options of these emerging black ethnic groups, western health care providers in the United States could become better versed in medically servicing growing ethnically-disparate black populations. The study yielded results about the researched groups that supported major findings in the reviewed literature. The data were reported and examined, and theoretical generalizations from the data were discussed. The most important of these findings was that, within a race, health beliefs and health care options were determined by specific ethno-cultural variables dependent on national origins. ^