Publications

May 2023
Article

Do Internal Control Weaknesses Affect Firms' Demand for Financial Skills? Evidence from U.S. Job Postings

By: Janet Gao, Kenneth J. Merkley, Joseph Pacelli and Joseph H. Schroeder

Ineffective internal controls over financial reporting often relates to a lack of qualified personnel with sufficient accounting and technical expertise. In this study, we examine whether firms respond to internal control failures by increasing their demand for... View Details

Keywords: Internal Controls; Labor Demand; Accounting; Financial Reporting; Experience and Expertise; Recruitment; Competency and Skills; Corporate Finance

SSRN

Spring 2018
Article

The Next Phase of Business Sustainability

By: Andrew J. Hoffman

The era of corporations integrating sustainable practices is being surpassed by a new age of corporations actively transforming the market to make it more sustainable. View Details

Keywords: Environmental Sustainability; Trends; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Corporate Disclosure

January 2004 (Revised September 2004)
Background Note

Confidentiality in Settlement Negotiations: Ethics & Law

By: Michael A. Wheeler, Dana Nelson and Gillian Morris

Legal policy has a long history of protecting confidentiality of negotiations that are designed to produce settlement. However, within the past several decades there has been a significant push toward openness. Compelling arguments support confidentiality: It helps... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Attorney and Client Relationships; Policy; Corporate Disclosure; Negotiation

September 2011
Article

Information Risk and Fair Value: An Examination of Equity Betas

By: Edward J. Riedl and George Serafeim

Using a sample of U.S. financial institutions, we exploit recent mandatory disclosures of financial instruments designated as fair value level 1, 2, and 3 to test whether greater information risk in financial instrument fair values leads to higher cost of capital. We... View Details

Keywords: Forecasting and Prediction; Assets; Cost of Capital; Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Corporate Disclosure; Information; Risk and Uncertainty; Value; United States

SSRN

25 Oct 2016
First Look

October 25, 2016

companies committed to making positive contributions to health and wellness. Focusing on four interconnected areas of corporate impact, it not only discusses the business imperative of promoting a healthier society and improved living... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

June 2025
Case

Accounting for OpenAI at Microsoft

By: Jonas Heese, Joseph Pacelli, Nicole Zelazko and Michael Norris

In early 2025, Microsoft was evaluating the impact of its $14 billion investment in OpenAI. As OpenAI’s computing needs expanded, Microsoft positioned Azure as the exclusive provider for training and inference of their large language models. Despite the scale of the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Financial Reporting; Revenue Recognition; Corporate Finance; Capital; Investment; Revenue; AI and Machine Learning; Valuation; Governance; Technology Industry; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry; Information Technology Industry; United States

03 Sep 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Supply Chain Screening Without Certification: The Critical Role of Stakeholder Pressure

Keywords: by Susan A. Kayser, John W. Maxwell & Michael W. Toffel

25 Mar 2013
Research & Ideas

How Chapter 11 Saved the US Economy

truth is anything but— "it's about reviving companies," says Gilson, author of the 2010 book Creating Value through Corporate Restructuring: Case Studies in Bankruptcies, Buyouts, and Breakups . Reviving The Economy Taking a... View Details

Keywords: by Kim Girard; Financial Services

Spring 2012
Article

The Need for Sector-Specific Materiality and Sustainability Reporting Standards

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus, Jean Rogers and George Serafeim

Even though the supply of sustainability information has increased considerably in the last decade, companies are still failing to disclose material information in a comparable format. We believe this has two downsides. On the one hand, companies are not adequately... View Details

Keywords: Sustainability; Reporting; Standard Setting; Regulation; Environmental Sustainability; Accounting; Standards; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Corporate Disclosure; Competitive Advantage; Capital Markets; Accounting Industry; United States

March 2025
Case

The Changing Climate on Wall Street

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maxim Pike Harrell and Michael Norris

Increasing and conflicting regulatory requirements and political pressures regarding climate change tested the leaders of U.S. financial institutions, as they struggled to determine how best to comply while managing their business and its risks.
In October 2024,... View Details

Forthcoming
Article

Legislators' Demand for Firms' Financial Statements: Evidence from U.S. Congressional Redistricting Events

By: Matthew Ma, Jing Pan, Ethan Rouen and Laura Wellman

We investigate whether U.S. House representatives and their staff seek financial information from constituent firms to inform their legislative decisions. We exploit shifts in U.S. congressional districts (i.e., the reconfiguration of federal district lines or... View Details

Keywords: Redistricting; Lobbying; Legislators; Voting Behavior; Corporate Disclosure; Government Legislation; Voting; Behavior

Register to Read

15 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: January 15

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2171265 When Do Firms Greenwash? Corporate Visibility, Civil Society Scrutiny, and Environmental Disclosure Authors:Marquis, Christopher, and Michael W. Toffel Abstract Under... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2008
Working Paper

Signaling Firm Performance Through Financial Statement Presentation: An Analysis Using Special Items

By: Edward J. Riedl and Suraj Srinivasan

This paper investigates whether managers' presentation of special items within the financial statements reflects economic performance or opportunism. Specifically, we assess special items presented as a separate line item on the income statement (income statement... View Details

Keywords: Financial Reporting; Financial Statements; Decision Choices and Conditions; Corporate Disclosure; Performance

SSRN

2008
Working Paper

Consequences of Voluntary and Mandatory Fair Value Accounting: Evidence Surrounding IFRS Adoption in the EU Real Estate Industry

By: Karl A Muller III, Edward J. Riedl and Thorsten Sellhorn

We examine the causes and consequences of European real estate firms' decisions to provide investment property fair values prior to the required disclosure of this information under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). We find evidence that investor... View Details

Keywords: Fair Value Accounting; Financial Reporting; International Accounting; Corporate Disclosure; Standards; Real Estate Industry; European Union

May 2008 (Revised July 2009)
Case

Sovereign Wealth Funds: For Profits or Politics?

By: Laura Alfaro and Renee Kim

On March 21, 2008, the U.S. government secured an agreement from two leading sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) to adopt a new set of investment principles to govern the Funds' activities. SWFs, broadly defined as an investment fund owned by a national or a government, were... View Details

Keywords: Foreign Direct Investment; Investment Funds; Sovereign Finance; Corporate Disclosure; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; International Relations; State Ownership; United States

01 Apr 2014
Working Paper Summaries

Opting Out of Good Governance

Keywords: by C. Fritz Foley, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Jonathan Greenstein & Eric Zwick

12 Jul 2011
First Look

First Look: July 12

experiment to examine the effect of management fiduciary duties on equity‐debt conflicts. A 1991 Delaware bankruptcy ruling changed the nature of corporate directors' fiduciary duties in firms incorporated in that state. This change... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

13 Oct 2006
Working Paper Summaries

Coerced Confessions: Self-Policing in the Shadow of the Regulator

Keywords: by Jodi L. Short & Michael W. Toffel

Article

Meaning and Momentum in the Integrated Reporting Movement

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus and Sydney Ribot

In this summary of their recently published book, the authors provide an update of the state of the integrated reporting (or ) movement, whose aim is to persuade companies to provide fuller disclosure of material nonfinancial (or "ESG") factors and how they are... View Details

Keywords: Integrated Reporting; Integrated Corporate Reporting