The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Security Analyst Monitoring Activity, and Firm Value

In this study we examine the complementary monitoring activity that takes place via the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) and its effect on security analyst monitoring activity and firm value of large and small public firms. Our findings indicate that security analyst monitoring activity has decreased post-SOX while firm value has increased post-SOX for both large and small firms. We also find that the increase in firm value is more pronounced for the group of small firms. Given these results, we surmise that the complementary monitoring activity provided by SOX is effective enough to have a positive impact on firm value

Multinational Firms, FDI Flows and Imperfect Capital Markets

This paper examines how costly financial contracting and weak investor protection influence the cross-border operational, financing and investment decisions of firms. We develop a model in which product developers have a comparative advantage in monitoring the deployment of their technology abroad. The paper demonstrates that when firms want to exploit technologies abroad, multinational firm (MNC) activity and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows arise endogenously when monitoring is nonverifiable and financial frictions exist. The mechanism generating MNC activity is not the risk of technological expropriation by local partners but the demands of external funders who require MNC participation to ensure value maximization by local entrepreneurs. The model demonstrates that weak investor protections limit the scale of multinational firm activity, increase the reliance on FDI flows and alter the decision to deploy technology through FDI as opposed to arm's length licensing. Several distinctive predictions for the impact of weak investor protection on MNC activity and FDI flows are tested and confirmed using firm-level data.

Advertising value equivalence – PR’s illegitimate offspring.

Public relations measurement and evaluation have long been major practice subjects. From the late 1970s onwards they have been identified as an important issue for research and practice implementation (McElreath, 1980, 1989; Synnott & McKie, 1997, Watson & Noble 2007; Watson 2008). The evolution of public relations measurement starts much earlier, with some suggesting that media monitoring practices can be identified from the late 18th century onwards (Lamme & Miller, 2010). Although the academic approach to measurement and evaluation has mostly favoured social science methodologies (Broom & Dozier 1990, Michaelson & Stacks 2011), there has been persistent and widespread practice use of Advertising Value Equivalence (AVE) to express the value of public relations activity for decades. Recent data (Daniels & Gaunt, 2009) found that AVE was used by 35% of a large international sample of practitioners. Early significant US practitioners, including Lee and Page, instituted media monitoring of programme outputs and AT&T developed sophisticated opinion researching to guide and monitor its communication activity (Cutlip 1994). Literature in the 1930s and 1940s indicate that these practices were extant, especially basic monitoring of media coverage (Batchelor, 1938). However, there are indications that AVE was in use from the 1940s onward. Plackard and Blackmon (1947) refer to it in the US and provide an example of its calculation. In the UK, the first warning against AVE came in a 1949 edition of the IPR Journal (J. L’Etang, personal communication, January 10, 2011). Both sources thus indicate it was an established practice by mid-century, although it did not surface in professional or quasi-academic literature till the late 1960s. AVE was further operationalized by the emergence of computer based analysis, such as offered by PR Data, in the mid-1960s (Tirone, 1977). From that decade onwards, its use became widespread, as indicated by industry coverage of awards and case studies and by award case studies. Latterly, AVE has been directly challenged by the Barcelona Declaration’s Principle 5 which stated that “AVEs are Not the Value of Public Relations” (AMEC, 2010). It added that AVEs “do not measure the value of public relations and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space and are rejected as a concept to value public relations.” Time will tell whether AVE is replaced by other, valid metrics. This paper investigates the evolution of AVE, which has long been damned as illegitimate, and postulates whether it arose from clippings agencies, advertising planning practices or from other influences on public relations

The impact of CoRoT on close binary research

The space experiment CoRoT will provide continuous monitoring and high accuracy light curves of about sixty thousand stars. Selected binary systems will be observed in the Additional Program frame as targets of long and continuous pointed observations. Moreover, thousands of new binaries will certainly be detected and hundreds of them will have extremely accurate light curves. This will allow studies of fine effects on the light curves, monitoring of stellar activity and, in combination with ground-based observations, will provide exquisite determination of stellar parameters. Among the new discoveries of interesting systems of special value will be those of low mass binaries.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to "Colse binaries in the 21th century", Syros (Greece), June 2005. To be published by Ap&S

A study to trial the use of inertial non-optical motion capture for ergonomic analysis of manufacturing work

It is going to be increasingly important for manufacturing system designers to incorporate human activity data and ergonomic analysis with other performance data in digital design modelling and system monitoring. However, traditional methods of capturing human activity data are not sufficiently accurate to meet the needs of digitised data analysis; qualitative data are subject to bias and imprecision, and optically derived data are hindered by occlusions caused by structures or other people in a working environment. Therefore, to meet contemporary needs for more accurate and objective data, inertial non-optical methods of measurement appear to offer a solution. This article describes a case study conducted within the aerospace manufacturing industry, where data on the human activities involved in aircraft wing system installations was first collected via traditional ethnographic methods and found to have limited accuracy and suitability for digital modelling, but similar human activity data subsequently collected using an automatic non-optical motion capture system in a more controlled environment showed better suitability. Results demonstrate the potential benefits of applying not only the inertial non-optical method in future digital modelling and performance monitoring but also the value of continuing to include qualitative analysis for richer interpretation of important explanatory factors

ENHANCING ASSETS' PROTECTION THROUGH AN ADEQUATE MONITORING OF INTERNAL CONTROL SYSTEM BY INTERNAL AUDIT

The assets are established into a company as very important and strategic resources that are contributing at the creation of the needed premises to conduct the daily-basis activity and also to reach present and future planned objectives. Recent studies like COSO's Fraudulent Financial Reporting 1998-2007 have highlighted an increasing fraudulent activity against assets therefore the efforts of fighting against fraud must be supplemented in order to preserve the existence and value of those resources. Internal controls are processes implemented in order to give a reasonable assurance that the company will not become a fraud victim. Even so, a lot of internal controls are paying a heavy tribute to their lack of efficiency and update. Thus, for a correct functioning, internal controls must be monitored and assessed permanently in order to preserve their strength and ability to fulfill their mission. This approach will deliver more added value because rather than being corrected after they have already occurred, the frauds related with the assets will be prevented, detected and reported at a timely moment, thereby the incidence and value of those criminal activities will decrease significantly. Furthermore, because not only the process of monitoring is important but even the entity conducting this activity we believe that internal audit is the most appropriate to undertake this responsibility. Thus, through this material we opened a discussion about how important permanent monitored and updated internal controls are in order to assure a proper assets protection and why internal audit, rather than the management, should be the most eligible to undertake this responsibility. Also we provided some suggestions regarding the main activities that must be taken into consideration by an internal audit professional when is being involved in a monitoring process of internal control system. We do believe that this paper will be the starting point for new discussions about the future activities and resources that must be invested in order to assure that internal audit's independence, objectiveness and professionalism will deliver a proper degree of security against frauds.internal audit, monitoring, internal control, assets, fraud

Non-Invasive monitoring of Inflammatory Bowel Disease : time to use newer tools?

Introduction: In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), commonly used biomarkers employed for non-invasive monitoring of disease activity are the C-reactive Protein (CRP) and Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR). Ulcerative colitis (UC) has a modest to absent CRP response despite active inflammation. Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) is often a marker of active disease in IBD. Methods: CRP, ESR, and Haemoglobin level taken within 7 days of a colonoscopy were analysed and compared with histopathological findings from colonic and ileal biopsies. Results: Colonic biopsies from 95 colonoscopies in UC patients; and colonic and ileal biopsies from 98 colonoscopies in CD patients were analyzed. The Positive Predictive Values and Negative Predictive Values relating to ESR, CRP and iron deficiency anaemia in the two groups of patients were calculated. Conclusion: UC has a similar CRP response to CD in active inflammation. Commonly used biomarkers have poor sensitivities in demonstrating active mucosal disease. IDA has little value when used as a marker of disease activity on its own but may be used as an adjunct to ESR and CRP. Faecal biomarkers and novel antibodies may help to increase the sensitivity and specificity in non-invasive monitoring of IBD.peer-reviewe

USING CALLING ACTIVITY TO PREDICT CALLING ACTIVITY: A CASE STUDY WITH THE ENDANGERED HOUSTON TOAD (BUFO [ANAXYRUS] HOUSTONENSIS)

Understanding anuran calling activity patterns is important for maximizing efficiency and value of call survey data collection and analyses. Previous studies have primarily focused on identifying and quantifying abiotic variables that influence anuran calling activity, and investigating relationships between calling activity and population estimates. In this study we investigated the use of a predictor pond approach to guide call survey effort. In this approach, calling activity at a subset of breeding sites (e.g., ponds) is used as a predictor of calling activity at additional breeding sites, with the goal being to minimize sampling effort while simultaneously maximizing sampling efficiency. We explored the efficiency of this approach using call survey data collected on the endangered Houston Toad (Bufo [Anaxyrus] houstonensis) at 15 known breeding ponds over 9 survey years. We found that if calling activity at 3 predictor ponds was used to decide if additional call surveys would occur at the remaining 12 ponds, we would have hypothetically correctly assumed calling activity was not occurring at non-predictor ponds on 92.1% of survey nights, and we would have hypothetically detected 93.9% of the total number of detected individuals over the 9 survey years. We found the predictor pond approach performed well in our case study, and believe it could be a valuable tool for many anuran monitoring programs