In the 1950s, the Republic of China (ROC) on the island of Taiwan was a Cold War ally of the United States. Led by President Chiang Kai-shek and his ruling Kuomintang Party, the ROC received military, financial, and humanitarian assistance from the U.S., and enjoyed support in the White House, from the Departments of State and Defense, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Democratic and Republican Parties. President Chiang even employed public relations firms and political pressure groups to help generate public support and to sway American policymakers to favor his cause. By the end of the 1970s, however, the ROC had lost its seat in the United Nations and no longer maintained formal diplomatic relations with the United States. Why would the United States abandon a long-standing World War II ally, recipient of American aid, and fellow anti-communist? The 1960s proved to be a pivotal decade in the diplomatic and military relationship between the United States and the ROC. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, both Democrats, publicly promised support for Chiang and the Chinese Nationalists on Taiwan. Chiang hoped to secure continued military aid and diplomatic support by relying upon allies in the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and in the U.S. Congress, and even occasionally making threats to take actions detrimental to American policy. Throughout the 1960s, the U.S.-ROC relationship was tested by events in the United Nations, the Taiwan Strait, and Southeast Asia. By the end of the decade, the ROC had lost millions in American aid and the United States had publicly started to consider normalizing relations with the People?s Republic of China. This dissertation will show that U.S.-ROC relations in the 1960s deteriorated due to a combination of factors. The Vietnam War was one of several factors that helped bring an end to formal American relations with the Republic of China. The Vietnam War caused a conflict of interest, whereby American containment of communism in Southeast Asia clashed with ROC plans to maintain its international legitimacy and to restore its rule over all China. Additionally, bureaucratic changes within the State Department, the demise and ineffectiveness of the China Lobby, and the changing make-up of the United Nations resulting from decolonization also contributed to the decline of U.S.-ROC relations.

This thesis discusses the development of penicillin during World War II, made possible by a complex relationship between private industry, academic researchers, and government research facilities and funding. It also examines the media response to the emergence of penicillin, the wide-spread war-time preoccupation with venereal disease, and the discovery of the potency of penicillin in treating such illnesses. It argues that the societal importance of penicillin was leveraged by policy makers in the post-war period to expand government funding for medical research and the role of the US Public Health Service. This was part of an overall trend of post-war expansion in government. / History

This dissertation presents the results of three experimental research studies investigating factors within the executive compensation process and the effects these factors have on the pay-for-performance paradigm. The first study examines the influence of individual anchoring and the effects of private versus public decisions upon compensation awards by subjects role-playing as either an outside CEO or a non-CEO director. Research results show that subjects anchor to personal pay levels, CEO subjects shield the focal CEO from declining compensation when performance is below average, and that this phenomenon is mitigated when the individual director-subject decision is deemed to be made public. The shielding of compensation is consistent with Social Comparison Theory in that the CEO-subjects identify to and protect the CEO by limiting negative compensation awards of the CEO, and thus, representing an agency cost. The second study examines affect as an influencing factor on individual decision makers in the compensation setting process. Results are consistent with Prospect Theory in that, in the absence of a tangible payoff, personal affect is the outcome monitored and used by individuals in the decision process in the determination of a gain or loss. Using personal pay and personal performance as anchors for subjects role-playing as directors on the compensation committee, results indicate that subjects make decisions to maximize (minimize) positive (negative) affect in compensation awards to the focal CEO. The findings suggest that although individual anchors may interact and add to the complexity of the decision process, the outcomes are consistent with Prospect Theory. The third study examines group decision making as compared to individual decisions when making compensation awards. Results show that in a committee of individuals where a majority of beliefs is present, group polarization occurs and the compensation results are exaggerated as compared to the individual beliefs. The findings also suggest, though, that the appointment of a leader as chair of the committee, either in the majority or minority view, has a moderating effect on the group outcome. These results highlight the potential for agency costs in the group decision process that may be found in the executive compensation-setting environment. Overall, these results add to the knowledge of factors affecting executive compensation. These studies provide evidence that individual anchors, individual performance, individual affect, and the group decision process may add to agency costs and be contributing factors in the imperfection of the pay-for-performance paradigm. / Ph. D.

Published Article / This article discusses the developments and factors that impact on the external audit function, and analyses the role that an effectively functioning audit committee can play in supporting the external auditor's independence and effectiveness. This is done through a literature review of external audit and audit committee developments, and is supported by empirical evidence obtained from assessing the annual reports and from questionnaires sent to the audit committee chairs of the Top 40 listed companies in South Africa. The main findings of the study are that audit committees at the largest listed companies in South Africa are taking responsibility for overseeing the external audit function, but that the disclosure thereof in annual reports was found to be lacking. These findings are of significance as they provide support for the recommendations of King III (effective from 1 March 2010) that all companies should form audit committees and that external audit should be given oversight responsibilities in this regard.

Introduction Since 2009 it has been legislated that Swedish listed public companies should establish an audit committee. The law and the code gives the board as a whole the possibility to operate the function of the committee. Former research of audit committee’s effect on audit fee have been made in several countries with various results. In this study, we aim to analyze how audit committees in companies listed on the Stockholm stock exchange can affect the audit fee. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain how the existence of audit committees and its characteristics affect the external audit fees of companies listed on the Stockholm stock exchange. Method This quantitative study has a cross section design and a deductive approach. By studying documents, the annual reports of the companies listed on the Stockholm stock exchange, data will be collected and then analyzed in regression models. We have operationalized our variables according to former studies and research. The hypotheses have been written on the basis of former research and two perspectives of demand and risk. Conclusion The results in this study show that the existence of audit committees have a positive relationship with audit fee. Also the activeness of the committee has a positive influence on audit fee. The results can be explained by the audit committee, especially active committees, on one hand lowers the overall audit risk but on the other increases the demand of higher audit quality, which outweighs the lowered audit risk. / Introduktion Sedan 2009 har det varit lagstiftat att svensknoterade publika bolag ska inrätta revisionsutskott. Lagtext och Koden ger dock möjlighet att låta styrelsen som helhet sköta utskottets uppgifter. Tidigare studier har genomförts i flertalet länder, där resultaten av revisionsutskottens påverkan på revisionskostnaden har varierat. Vi vill i denna studie undersöka hur revisionsutskott påverkar revisionskostnaden i svensknoterade bolag. Syfte Syftet med vår studie är att förklara hur revisionsutskottens förekomst och karaktär påverkar revisionskostnaden för bolag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen. Metod Denna kvantitativa studie har en tvärsnittsdesign och en deduktiv ansats. Genom dokumentstudier har data i årsredovisningar från bolag noterade på Stockholmsbörsen samlats in för att sedan analyseras i regressionsmodeller. Operationalisering har i så stor utsträckning som möjligt gjorts i enighet med tidigare forskning. Vidare har hypoteser formulerats utifrån tidigare forskning med utgångspunkt ur ett efterfråge- och riskperspektiv. Slutsats Våra resultat visar att förekomsten av revisionsutskott har positivt samband med revisionskostnader. Även revisionsutskottets aktivitet har visat sig ha positiv påverkan på revisionskostnader. Resultaten förklaras av att revisionsutskott, och särskilt aktiva sådana, visserligen sänker den allmänna revisionsrisken men att en ökad efterfrågan av högre revisionskvalitét överväger den minskade revisionsrisken.

Title: The relationship between Key Audit Matters and Audit Committees: A quantitative study on 310 Swedish companies.   Level: Master Programme in Business Administration, Accounting.   Author: Albin Eriksson and Emilia Thunell   Supervisor: Asif M Huq   Date: 2023 - May   Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to see how the quality of the audit committee relates to the number of key audit matters in the audit report. The quality of the audit committee will be determined through meeting frequency, independence in the audit committee, size of the committee, diversity in the committee, if the members are getting remuneration explicit for being in the audit committee, how many words that describe the work of the audit committee in the annual reports, and if the committee is separated from the board of directors, so-called dedicated.   Method: This is a quantitative study that has been conducted with descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, VIF analysis, multivariate regression, univariate regression, and a Poisson regression to ensure the result in the multivariate analysis.   Results and conclusions: The result of this thesis shows a significant relationship between our dependent variable key audit matters and two of our independent variables, meeting frequency and remuneration. The conclusion is that the institutional structure can have an impact on the audit committee's effect on key audit matters, since Swedish companies already have a lot of corporate governance mechanisms, which can mean that companies get more ineffective in having an audit committee.    Contribution of the thesis: The theoretical contribution is a broad view on the characteristics effect on key audit matters, and a contribution to the research in a strong institutional structure. The practical contribution is that companies can use this study to evaluate if they need an audit committee or not.    Suggestions for future research: Suggestions for future research is to examine more EU countries, to see if EU regulations have a major impact on companies corporate governance, or if the institutional differences in the different countries have a bigger impact.    Key words: Key Audit Matters, Audit Committee, Agency Theory, Audit committee characteristics, Institutional structure

The purpose of this study is a critical examination of this Committee with emphasis on its methods, procedure, and worth.

Submitted by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-08-09T18:25:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 AdrianaNascimentoMoreiradaSilvaSalgueiroDissertacao2018.pdf: 3463779 bytes, checksum: c92d0cc2bd4fa7139c94db56bfc9c33a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-08-09T18:25:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 AdrianaNascimentoMoreiradaSilvaSalgueiroDissertacao2018.pdf: 3463779 bytes, checksum: c92d0cc2bd4fa7139c94db56bfc9c33a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T18:25:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AdrianaNascimentoMoreiradaSilvaSalgueiroDissertacao2018.pdf: 3463779 bytes, checksum: c92d0cc2bd4fa7139c94db56bfc9c33a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-22 / The IT Governance (ITG) is known in the public and private sector, to present a group of mechanisms contemplating structures, process and relations that are defined by the Board with the objective of direct the IT actions and exert control about the use of its resources and management, aligning achievements of the strategic goals of organizations. Within the mechanisms referenced in the theoretical framework and identified in the literature review, there is the IT Strategy Committee, known worldwide as one of the most used tools by public or private organizations, enabling the IT Governance in the research for better performance. The present dissertation, through the methodologies of research content analysis and documentary analysis, identified the contribution of literature and the guiding legal apparatus to the foundation and operation of the IT Governance of the Federal Public Administration (APF), confronting them to the firmed purpose on the respective acts who built it. Therefore, this study presents a comparative analysis between twenty-four IT Strategy Committee within the scope of APF, considering the universe of records and documents that were available to this research, by the Brazilian law nº 12.527, of November 18th, 2011( 'Lei de Acesso à Informação – LAI’ ) obtained between the months of August and December 2016. Through the analyzes carried out, it was verified that only the competences associated to the categorization “IT Policies, Principles, Guidelines and Strategies”, covered by the literature, were perceived in the totality of the competences attributed to the IT Strategy Committee in the APF. The topics related to “IT Risks” were verified in the role of these Committees in only 12.5% of the documents analyzed. The guidelines issued by the department responsible for providing a guiding legal apparatus associated with the institution of these IT Governance structures in the APF were not fully observed in the acts that constituted the GTI Committees in the Brazilian direct APF. / A Governança Corporativa de Tecnologia da Informação (GCTI) é reconhecida, tanto no setor público quanto no privado, por apresentar um conjunto de mecanismos contemplando estruturas, processos e relacionamentos que são definidos pela Alta Administração com vistas à direcionar as ações de TI e exercer controle sobre o uso de seus recursos e sobre a sua gestão, em alinhamento à consecução dos objetivos estratégicos das organizações. Dentre os mecanismos referenciados no arcabouço teórico e identificados na revisão de literatura, tem-se o uso dos Comitês de Governança de Tecnologia da Informação (CGTI), reconhecidos mundialmente como um dos instrumentos mais utilizados pelas organizações, sejam elas públicas ou privadas, viabilizadores do exercício da GCTI, na busca por melhor desempenho. A presente dissertação, por meio das metodologias de pesquisa análise de conteúdo e análise documental, identificou as contribuições da literatura e o aparato legal norteador para a instituição e atuação dos CGTI da Administração Pública Feral direta, confrontando-os frente aos propósitos firmados nos respectivos atos que os constituíram. Para tanto, o estudo apresenta uma análise comparativa entre 24 Comitês de GTI no âmbito da APF, considerando-se o universo dos registros e documentos que foram disponibilizados para esta pesquisa, por meio da Lei nº 12.527, de 18 de novembro de 2011 - Lei de Acesso à Informação – LAI, obtidos entre os meses de agosto e dezembro de 2016. Por meio das análises realizadas contatou-se que apenas as competências associadas à categorização “Políticas, Princípios, Diretrizes e Estratégias de TI”, abrangidas pela literatura, foram percebidas na totalidade das competências atribuídas aos Comitês de GTI na APF. A temática relacionada aos Riscos de TI foi verificada no rol de competências desses Comitês, em apenas 12,5% dos documentos analisados As orientações emanadas do órgão responsável por prover aparato legal norteador associado à instituição dessas estruturas de GTI na APF, também não foram integralmente observadas nos atos que constituíram os Comitês de GTI na APF direta brasileira.

Abstract This thesis focuses on the oversight mechanism used by congress to supervise the intelligence department, mainly through examining the historical development of the oversight mechanism that the U.S. Congress uses over the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, as well as evaluating the mechanism¡¦s successes and failures, in order to find a suitable direction for establishing an oversight mechanism for our country¡¦s Legislative Yuan over the National Security Agency, NSA. First of all, the inceptive backgrounds and historical developments of the CIA and the NSA are introduced. After establishing an understanding of the special backgrounds and developments of the two agencies, the writer, using the Institutional Process Theory, analyzes and discusses how the U.S. Congress¡¦ oversight mechanism over the CIA has progressed, thereby determining the key to the successes and failures of the U.S. Congress¡¦ intelligence oversight mechanism. Having analyzed the intelligence oversight mechanism of the U.S. Congress, the writer brings up suggestions as to how our country¡¦s Legislative Yuan can develop an oversight mechanism over the NSA in the future. Lastly, from these discussions, the writer addresses the contributions, propositions, and limitations of this research and hopes that these research and discussions can assist the Legislative Yuan in institutionalizing a comprehensive intelligence oversight mechanism over the NSA.

Published Article / Sustainability has been described as the primary moral and economic imperative of the twenty-first century and one of the most important sources of both opportunities and risks for businesses. Companies are also expected to behave, and be seen to behave, as responsible corporate citizens that is, as protecting, enhancing and investing in the wellbeing of the economy, society and the natural environment in which they do business. Accordingly the need exists for accurate, reliable and credible stakeholder reporting by organisations on their economic, social and environmental performances and achievements. An effectively functioning audit committee can play an important role in this regard to assist the board in providing accurate and credible sustainability reporting and disclosures that are integrated with the company's financial reporting. The objective of the article is twofold: it aims, firstly, to provide a brief overview of the development of sustainability and sustainability reporting and the role that audit committees can fulfil in this regard; and, secondly, its intention is to provide evidence that the recommendations of the third Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (King III) regarding sustainability reporting, assurance and the audit committee's oversight responsibility for this are justified. This is done through a literature review of current sustainability and audit committee developments and practices, and this is supported by empirical evidence obtained from assessing the annual reports and questionnaires sent to the audit committee chairs of the Top 40 listed companies in South Africa. The main findings of the study are that the majority of audit committees at the largest listed companies in South Africa are not taking oversight responsibility for sustainability reporting on their boards' behalf, although they are dealing with some ethical and social reporting aspects. It was also found that reporting by companies in their annual reports on their audit committee's corporate governance, social and sustainability oversight responsibilities was limited and does not reflect the true state of affairs. These findings are of significance, as they provide support for the recommendations of King III (effective from 1 March 2010) that companies should in future provide integrated reporting in terms of both their finances and sustainability, and that the audit committee should take oversight responsibility for this. The study is of specific relevance for Africa with its rich mineral resources, as it is of vital importance that companies that do business on the continent behave as responsible corporate citizens, respect the environment and society, and provide accurate, reliable and credible reporting on their financial and sustainability performance to all of their stakeholders.