The corporate governance effects of audit committee

This chapter provides a synthesis and evaluation of empirical research on the governance effects associated with audit committees. Given recent policy recommendations in several countries aimed at strengthening these committees, it is important to establish what research evidence demonstrates about their existing governance contribution. A framework for analyzing the impact of audit committees is described, identifying potential perceived effects which may have led to their adoption and documented effects on aspects of the audit function, on financial reporting quality and on corporate performance. It is also shown that most of the existing research has focused on factors associated with audit committee existence, characteristics, and measures of activity and there is very little evidence on the processes associated with the operation of audit committees and the manner in which they influence organizational behavior. It is clear that there is no automatic relationship between the adoption of audit committee structures or characteristics and the achievement of particular governance effects, and caution may be needed over expectations that greater codification around factors such as audit committee members’ independence and expertise as the means of ‘‘correcting’’ past weaknesses in the arrangements for audit committees. The most fundamental question concerning what difference audit committees make in practice continues to be an important area for research development. For future research we suggest: (1) greater consideration of the organizational and institutional contexts in which audit committees operate; (2) explicit theorization of the processes associated with audit committee operation; (3) complementing extant research methods with field studies; and (4) investigation of unintended as well as expected consequences of audit committees

Recent advances of marine ornamental fish larviculture: broodstock reproduction, live prey and feeding regimes, and comparison between demersal and pelagic spawners

Marine ornamental fish are a key component of the multimillion‐dollar marine aquarium trade industry, a controversial industry due to current heavy reliance on wild‐collected specimens. Aquaculture of marine ornamental fish is considered as a sustainable alternative, but it is still in the early stage of development. This review focuses on the current state of marine ornamental fish aquaculture, by covering topics on reef fish reproductive biology in captivity, traditional and novel live feeds, feeding regimes and visual environment in larviculture. Where possible, major differences between demersal and pelagic spawners are compared and discussed. Overall, for many ornamental fish species, natural spawning can be achieved in a captive environment without the use of hormone induction; however, sex identification and successful pairing for reef fish species could be a challenge. With the use of both traditional (rotifers and Artemia) and novel live feeds (e.g. marine copepods and ciliates), a range of breakthroughs in larval rearing of both demersal and pelagic spawning ornamental fish species have been achieved in recent years, although larval survival varies. To further improve the larval rearing success of marine ornamental fish, this review suggests that future research should focus on optimizing the use of live feed in terms of both quality and quantity, and establishment of well‐defined species‐specific larval feeding regime, as well as providing appropriate rearing condition through improved manipulation of light conditions and the 'greenwater' techniques in larval rearing