Rhyme and Reason in Language Acquisition: Incorporating Poetry into the ESL Classroom

Utah is seeing a rapid increase in K-12 students whose native language is not English. With this increase, teachers face the challenge of finding new and effective teaching methods to reach their ESL (English as a Second Language) students. This research explores the study of poetry as an instrument to improve ESL students\u27 pronunciation of English. When read out loud, poetry can be an exercise in pronouncing consonant sounds (from alliteration), decoding vowel sounds (from rhyme), and acquiring the natural speech rhythm of the English language (from meter). Poetry was selected not only because of its exaggerated sound elements (alliteration, rhyme, and meter) but also because of it is a comfortable and approachable text for ESL students to study. During a six-week study with an ESL student, I found to be very beneficial in my subject\u27s pronunciation of English. This case study has shown poetry to be successful for this individual; therefore, there is a need for further research in this subject

An Exploratory Examination of Export Control Act Violations

This paper examines the impact of violations of export control policy from a multinational enterprise’s\ud perspective. We describe the kinds of regulation in place in the U.S. over the past decade, and identify the\ud characteristics of firms who have been caught and fined for violations of export restrictions. Furthermore, we\ud investigate the response of shareholders to news regarding trade violations and find that they suffer a statistically significant -1.15% abnormal returns over the three day announcement window. Not surprisingly, we find that the reaction post 9–11 is worse as is the reaction when the export violations occur with countries perceived to be corrupt. We also find that systematic risk and total risk increase for violators following their investigations. Further, any penalty in terms of long run performance for ECA violations is limited to those violations with the “corrupt” countries

Fraud in startups: what stakeholders need to know

Purpose: This paper aims to explain the fundraising and valuation processes of startups and discuss the conflicts of interest between entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC) firms and stakeholders in the context of startup corporate governance. Further, this paper uses the examples of WeWork and Zenefits to explain how a failure of stakeholders to demand an external audit from an independent accounting firm in early stages of funding led to an opportunity for fraud. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology used is a literature review and analysis of startup valuation combined with the Fraud Triangle Theory. This paper also provides a discussion of WeWork and Zenefits, both highly visible examples of startup fraud, and explores an increased role for independent external auditors in fraud risk mitigation on behalf of stakeholders prior to an initial public offering (IPO). Findings: This paper documents a number of fraud risks posed by the “fake it till you make it” ethos and investor behavior and pricing in the world of entrepreneurial finance and VC, which could be mitigated by a greater awareness of startup stakeholders of the value of an external audit performed by an independent accounting firm prior to an IPO. Research limitations/implications: An implication of this paper is that regulators should consider greater oversight of the startup financing process and potentially take steps to facilitate greater independence of participants in the IPO process. Practical implications: Given the potential conflicts of interest between VC firms, investment banks and startup founders, the investors at the time of an IPO may be exposed to the risk that the shares of the IPO firms are overvalued at offering. Social implications: This study demonstrates how startup practices can be extended to the Fraud Triangle and issue a call to action for the accounting profession to take a greater role in protecting the public from startup fraud. This study then offers recommendations for regulators and standards entities. Originality/value: There are few academic papers in the financial crime literature that link the valuation and culture of startup firms with fraud risk. This study provides a concise explanation of the process of valuation for startups and highlights the considerations for stakeholders in assessing fraud risk. In addition, this study documents an emerging role for auditors as stewards of proper valuation for pre-IPO firms

The relationship between R&D intensity, conservatism, and management earnings forecast issuance

R&D-intensive firms suffer from high information asymmetry and high proprietary costs and are prone to exhibit bottom-line losses given the unconditional conservative accounting treatment of R&D expenses. We examine how R&D intensity influences the issuance of management earnings forecasts (MEFs) across levels of accounting conservatism, controlling for proprietary costs and other earnings guidance determinants. We provide insights into how managers view the tradeoffs of using MEF disclosures to lower information asymmetry versus the costs of releasing proprietary information to competitors and the loss of reputational capital that could arise from providing inaccurate forecasts. We find that although R&D intensity and conditional conservatism are negatively related to the issuance of MEFs, as shown in prior research, at high levels of research intensity and the accompanying uncertainty about future payoffs, the negative association between conditional conservatism and MEF issuance is mitigated. These findings point to a role for conditional conservatism as a credibility enhancer for managers of R&D intense firms

IPO Firms’ Voluntary Compliance with SOX 404 as Evidence on the Value Relevance of Internal Control Quality

Newly public firms are not required to comply with SOX 404 for their initial public offerings. This provides a unique setting in which to investigate the benefits of voluntary disclosure with SOX 404 and the value of information revealed as a consequence of compliance.  We investigate whether voluntary compliance with SOX 404, either fully or partially, impacts the perceived risk of firms conducting IPOs on the first day of trading (reflected in underpricing) or following the IPO. Our results indicate that neither full compliance with SOX 404 at the time of the IPO, nor a managerial discussion of internal controls prior to the IPO, result in lower underpricing or higher post-IPO performance. This suggests that the costs incurred through the SOX 404 compliance process may be unnecessary. Indirectly, our results provide additional evidence that some of the requirements of SOX extract costs from shareholders without supporting better quality information

Bidder Earnings Management, Cynical Targets and Acquisition Premia

Mergers and acquisitions are the result of negotiations between bidder and target managers and shareholders where both sides have incentives to manipulate the value of shares and assets. While a naive target investor may perceive higher share value for a bidder who engages in income increasing earnings management, an informed target would recognize that the impact of such management is transient. In this paper, we find that non-cash acquirers that adopt income-increasing pre-merger earnings management pay higher acquisition premia in completing their M&A deals. However, there is no significant relationship between earnings management and acquisition premia in cash bids, and evidence suggests that there is no significant incremental impact of bidder earnings management on premia for stock transactions versus cash transactions. Our results support the cynical investor hypothesis, which posits that target management and its financial advisors are suspicious of bidders with low earnings quality and are able to detect and thwart bidder earnings management schemes designed to obtain a lower acquisition price in stock transactions. The results are counter to the naive investor hypothesis

IPO Firms\u27 Voluntary Compliance With SOX 404 As Evidence On The Value Relevance Of Internal Control Quality

Newly public firms are not required to comply with SOX 404 for their initial public offerings. This provides a unique setting in which to investigate the benefits of voluntary disclosure with SOX 404 and the value of information revealed as a consequence of compliance. We investigate whether voluntary compliance with SOX 404, either fully or partially, impacts the perceived risk of firms conducting IPOs on the first day of trading (reflected in underpricing) or following the IPO. Our results indicate that neither full compliance with SOX 404 at the time of the IPO, nor a managerial discussion of internal controls prior to the IPO, result in lower underpricing or higher post-IPO performance. This suggests that the costs incurred through the SOX 404 compliance process may be unnecessary. Indirectly, our results provide additional evidence that some of the requirements of SOX extract costs from shareholders without supporting better quality information

Going concern modifications and the self-fulfilling prophecy: evidence from extreme market conditions

Purpose: This study aims to examine whether two periods of extreme market conditions – the governance crisis and Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulatory shock of 2002 and the 2007–2008 global financial crisis – incrementally impacted the self-fulfilling prophecy effect, by examining the propensity of US firms receiving going concern modification (GCM) opinions to go bankrupt relative to their non-GCM distress risk-matched counterparts during these two crisis periods. Design/methodology/approach: To assess the potential influence of the governance/regulatory shock of 2002 and the global financial crisis moderate or mitigate the self-fulfilling prophecy effect, the authors use multivariate logit analysis, regressing t + 1 bankruptcy status on time t GCM and other bankruptcy determinants, interacting crisis period dummies with the GCM variable. Findings: GCM firms were more likely to declare bankruptcy than their distressed non-GCM counterparts, confirming prior research documenting the existence of a self-fulfilling prophecy effect. The authors also find that the self-fulfilling prophecy effect was exacerbated by the governance crisis/Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulatory shock, but not the global financial crisis, a financial/banking sector shock. Originality/value: This study contributes to the financial crisis and auditing literatures by examining whether exogenous shocks exacerbate the self-fulfilling prophecy effect. The present analysis and findings have implications for future academic research related to systemic shocks and for auditors in documenting the inducement effect arising from the issuance of GCMs during crisis periods

Acquisitions and Regulatory Arbitrage by Captive Finance Companies

Captive finance firms play an important role as financial intermediaries. Yet, they receive little attention in financial research. Recently, finance companies have grown by engaging in acquisition activities. Given their unique characteristics, finance companies may be more capable of extracting gains from acquisitions than other firms. We explain their advantages, and assess the market response and long-term valuation of finance companies that engage in acquisitions. Our results indicate that acquisitions by captive finance firms are wealth enhancing in the short term and the long term. However, the market reacts negatively when flexible captive financing firms acquire highly regulated depository institutions

Acquisitions and Regulatory Arbitrage by Captive Finance Companies

Captive finance firms play an important role as financial intermediaries. Yet, they receive little attention in financial research. Recently, finance companies have grown by engaging in acquisition activities. Given their unique characteristics, finance companies may be more capable of extracting gains from acquisitions than other firms. We explain their advantages, and assess the market response and long-term valuation of finance companies that engage in acquisitions. Our results indicate that acquisitions by captive finance firms are wealth enhancing in the short term and the long term. However, the market reacts negatively when flexible captive financing firms acquire highly regulated depository institutions