Experienced and Novice Investors: Does Environmental Information Influence on Investment Allocation Decisions?

This paper examines the effect of environmental information on the investment decisions of investors. The motivation for the experimental design applied in this study is that unless actual decision making is observed, the potential usefulness of environmental information (or lack thereof) cannot be taken for granted. The study is based on an experiment where groups of investors (varied by experience) were asked to make investment allocation decisions based on financial information and on supplementary environmental information (varied between cases). As an investment allocation decision (varied by investment horizons) the groups were asked to allocate funds to two companies based on the available information. The findings suggest that environmental information has the potential to influence investment allocation decisions. The findings also suggest that the influence of environmental information on investment allocation decisions is mitigated by the variables considered explicitly in this study, i.e., the investment horizon (varied as short and long) and investor experience (varied as novice and experienced investor). It is concluded that because allocation decisions are multifaceted problems, mixed results related to the influence of environmental information should be expectedEnvironmental reporting; Environmental disclosures; Allocation; Decision making; Investment horizon; Investors; Experiment;

Do as you say - Say as you do: Measuring the actual use of environmental information in investment decisions

This paper focuses on the use of environmental information in investment decision making. The research approach employed was based on an experiment where three groups were asked to allocate investment funds between two companies based on financial accounts and information material from these companies. The overall con-clusion of the paper is that even though environmental information is not enough in itself to shift decision preferences, it seems to have some impact on decision mak-ing. However, there seems to be a discrepancy between what decision makers say they do and what they actually do. First, environmental information apparently has greater impact on decision making in the short run than the long run despite deci-sion makers saying that they value environmental information more regarding long-run investments. Second, decision makers downplay the value of environmental information in corporate information material but this information seems to affect their decision making just the same. Third, qualitative information seems to affect decision making regarding short-run investments more than the combination of qualitative and quantitative informationNo keywords;

Corporate governance ratings as a means to reduce asymmetric information

Can corporate governance ratings reduce problems of asymmetric information between companies and investors? To answer this question, we set out to examine the information basis for providing such ratings by reviewing corporate governance attributes that are required or recommended in laws, accounting standards and codes, respectively. After that, we scrutinize and organize the publicly available information on the methodologies actually used by rating providers. However, important details of these methodologies are treated as confidential property, thus we approach the evaluation of corporate governance ratings as a means to reduce asymmetric information in a more general manner. We propose that the rating process may be seen as consisting of two general activities, namely a data reduction phase, and a data weighting, aggregation and classification phase. Findings based on a Danish data set suggest that rating providers by selecting relevant attributes in an intelligent way can improve the screening of companies according to governance quality. In contrast, it seems questionable that weighting, aggregation and classification of corporate governance attributes considerably improve discrimination according to governance qualityNo; keywords

An Examination of Actual Fraud Cases With a Focus on the Auditor’s Responsibility

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to an understanding of the intricate relationship between audit regulation and developments in audit practice in relation to the fraud issue. The extent and exact nature of the responsibilities of the auditor to detect fraud in relation to audit engagements has been widely discussed over the years. In this paper we classify actual cases, where the responsibilities of auditors have been established by the court system and/or by the auditors own professional organizations in Denmark. The dataset includes all publicized cases raised against Danish auditors within the time period 1909-2006. The information provided in the cases provides a basis for identifying the actual responsibilities pertaining to fraud during the audit. The overall finding of the historical analysis is that the responsibilities of the auditor in relation to fraud should be interpreted not as a group of its own, but in line with the development of what constitutes a good audit in general.Fraud; auditor responsibility; intentional misstatements; misappropriation; fraudulent reporting; embezzlement;

Den anden som belastning - om reproduktiv kloning

Artiklen tager udgangspunkt i at den modstand mod reproduktiv kloning, der hidtil har gjort sig gældende, ikke mere er selvfølgelig. Provokeret heraf fremsættes et etisk argument imod reproduktiv kloning, der er begrundet i det forhold, at mennesket ifølge Schmidt og Holm tilhører ’forskellen til den anden’. Som en lokal manifestation af den ’pragmatiske fejlslutning’, der karakteriserer udviklingen af den moderne medicin, nemlig at enhver ’kunnen’ nødvendigvis artikulerer sig i en ’skullen’, er kloning således forbundet med en overskridelse af det incestforbud, der som grænsemarkering fungerer som et væsentligt fundament for vores kultur. Schmidt og Holm redegør nemlig for, hvordan reproduktiv kloning kan betragtes som udtryk for en ultimativ narcissisme, idet den karakteriserer et menneskeligt ønske om at overskride døden og blive identisk med sig selv