Publications

29 Jan 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business Press Is a Watchdog that Bites

When tales of financial fraud hit the newsstands, business people and academics usually assume that it was analysts or auditors who brought the wrongdoing to light. Journalists, they believe, are only repeating what they've been told.... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Journalism & News; Publishing

June 2023
Case

Dan McCrum - Unmasking Wirecard

By: Jonas Heese, Charles C.Y. Wang, Tonia Labruyere and Carlota Moniz

Dan McCrum, an investigative journalist for the Financial Times, had spent the past six years fighting to expose German payment processing firm Wirecard. The company had enjoyed years of exponential growth and was viewed by several investors as the poster child of... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Accounting; Financial Services Industry; Journalism and News Industry; Europe; United Kingdom; Germany

November 2003 (Revised September 2021)
Case

Ivar Kreuger and the Swedish Match Empire

By: Geoffrey Jones and Ingrid Vargas

Taught in Evolution of Global Business. Globalization and corporate fraud are the central themes of this case on the international growth of Swedish Match in the interwar years. Between 1913 and 1932, Ivar Kreuger, known as the "Swedish Match King," built a small,... View Details

Keywords: History; International Finance; Globalized Firms and Management; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Monopoly; Business and Government Relations; Sweden

September 1986 (Revised February 1991)
Case

Graves Industries, Inc. (C): Consumer Hardware Division

Describes events occurring over a three-year period in a division of Graves Industries. The division is being squeezed for profit, and managers in the division get involved in some fraudulent financial reporting schemes involving revenues and capitalization of... View Details

Keywords: Earnings Management; Crime and Corruption; Ethics; Financial Reporting

2012
Chapter

Integrated Reporting Requires Integrated Assurance

By: Robert G. Eccles, Michael P. Krzus and Liv A. Watson

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, increasing the effectiveness of auditing has weighed heavily on the minds of those responsible for governance. When a business is profitable and paying healthy dividends to its stockholders, fraudulent activities and... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Crime and Corruption; Integrated Corporate Reporting; Governance Compliance; Organizational Culture; Management Systems; Laws and Statutes; Information Management; Accounting Audits; Financial Crisis

July 2015
Article

Executives' 'Off-the-Job' Behaviors and Financial Reporting Risk

By: Robert Davidson, Aiyesha Dey and Abbie Smith

We examine how executives' behavior outside the workplace, as measured by their ownership of luxury goods (low “frugality”) and prior legal infractions, is related to financial reporting risk. We predict and find that chief executive officers (CEOs) and chief financial... View Details

Keywords: Management Teams; Behavior; Personal Characteristics; Crime and Corruption; Governance Compliance; Financial Reporting; Organizational Culture

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March 2008
Supplement

Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads (B)

By: V.G. Narayanan and Pamela Freed

Case (B) of "Ujjivan: A Microfinance Institution at a Crossroads" addresses some of the actions Ujjivan, a microfinance provider in Bangalore, has taken with regard to issues raised in the (A) case, particularly regarding fraud and establishing financial... View Details

Keywords: Financial Institutions; Microfinance; Crime and Corruption; Accounting Audits; Product Development; Financial Services Industry; Bangalore

October 2012
Supplement

Olympus (B)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Suraj Srinivasan and Kathleen Durante

This case outlines Michael Woodford's awards and honors, after having been fired from Olympus in October 2011. It discusses the repercussions following an investigation into the fraud and the report that was released thereafter. It also discusses the lawsuit that... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Health Industry; Electronics Industry; Japan

October 2012 (Revised July 2013)
Case

Olympus (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch, Suraj Srinivasan and Kathleen Durante

As 2012 approached, the woes of the financial crisis seemed to be fading, companies were resuming business as usual, and some of the scrutiny on corporate governance practices began to recede as well. That is until another major financial scandal emerged in Japan in... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Electronics Industry; Health Industry; Japan

06 Apr 2010
First Look

First Look: April 6

punishment for its role in the accounting fraud at Kanebo. This action was unprecedented, and followed a sequence of events that seriously damaged ChuoAoyama's reputations for audit quality. We use these... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

June 2013
Teaching Note

A Politician in a Leather Suit and the Paradox of Japanese Capitalism

By: Karthik Ramanna

Two lost decades later, capitalism in Japan embodies peculiar contradictions—preserving wealth and social stability in the face of declining economic power. Scant transparency in Japanese corporate practices plays an important role in this phenomenon. Sometimes... View Details

Keywords: Japan; Tokyo; Economic Systems; Corporate Accountability; Values and Beliefs; Fairness; Crime and Corruption; Civil Society or Community; Corporate Governance; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Tokyo

November 2012 (Revised August 2013)
Case

A Politician in a Leather Suit and the Paradox of Japanese Capitalism

By: Karthik Ramanna and Matthew Shaffer

Two lost decades later, capitalism in Japan embodies peculiar contradictions—preserving wealth and social stability in the face of declining economic power. Scant transparency in Japanese corporate practices plays an important role in this phenomenon. Sometimes... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Economic Systems; Economic Slowdown and Stagnation; Fairness; Values and Beliefs; Corporate Accountability; Corporate Governance; Civil Society or Community; Japan; Tokyo

07 Feb 2012
Working Paper Summaries

Earnings Management from the Bottom Up: An Analysis of Managerial Incentives Below the CEO

Keywords: by Felix Oberholzer-Gee & Julie Wulf

February 2014
Teaching Note

Olympus (A)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Suraj Srinivasan

As 2012 approached the woes of the financial crisis seemed to be fading, companies were resuming business as usual and some of the scrutiny on corporate governance practices began to recede as well. That is until another major financial scandal emerged in Japan in the... View Details

Keywords: Accounting; Corporate Governance; Corporate Accountability; Electronics Industry; Japan