Zugl.: Mannheim, Universiẗat Diss., 2009.

Thesis (M. S.)--Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Bras, Bert; Committee Member: Jeter, Sheldon; Committee Member: McGinnis, Leon. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 111 p. and map. Includes bibliographical references (p. 105-110).

The following report is an examination of consumer tracking and profiling in the United States. The paper presents perspectives on the current discussion surrounding regulation of consumer tracking. It begins with an explanation of the evolution of tracking technologies and tracking prevention tools. This is followed by a discussion of the outcomes of self-regulatory initiatives, as well as existing regulatory efforts from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and standardization initiatives from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This background information is used to examine “specialty consumer reporting agency” Web sites, information brokers that exist solely to create profiles about individuals and sell these profiles online. This research presents a content analysis of privacy policies for 29 of these Web sites. Specifically, the content analysis focuses on the legal language they use in their presentation of Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) disclaimers, the listed sources of their information, and their instructions for users to correct or remove their information. The conclusion from the findings is that many of these Web sites are engaging in deceptive practices as defined by the FTC. As a solution, the FTC could enforce FCRA requirements on these Web sites by requiring that consumers be able to access this information, dispute inaccurate information, understand how their information is gathered and used, and opt out of having a profile completely. The FTC also can create a centralized Web site where specialty consumer reporting agencies identify themselves to consumers, describe how they collect and use consumer data, and detail the access rights and other choices they provide with respect to the consumer data they maintain. Finally, the paper concludes with a summary of online privacy initiatives in the European Union, and an explanation of the requirements of United States compliance with these policies when taking part in the European marketplace. / text

Given the high level of scrutiny on top executives in recent years, particularly those at banks, examining the impact of bank managers' ability on financial reporting is of great value. This paper builds on models of bank efficiency in the banking literature to derive a measure of bank managerial ability, and examines how bank managerial ability impacts the quality of accounting information related to unique bank accounting issues. I find evidence that higher ability managers do report higher quality accounting estimates for the allowance for loan losses and fair values of securities. Additionally, I identify two settings that affect the strength of the relation between bank managerial ability and accounting quality, the Financial Crisis and when capital ratios are binding. I find evidence that this relation is stronger during the recent Financial Crisis but is attenuated when capital ratios are binding. These findings should be of interest to investors, standard setters, and particularly bank regulators tasked with monitoring the stability of banks. / text

published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Master / Master of Philosophy

High quality financial reporting is critically important for bank regulation, particularly market discipline, but limited evidence exists on why banks provide different levels of financial reporting quality. I examine whether institutional investors and financial analysts impact bank financial reporting quality. Although I find no impact of analysts on bank financial reporting quality, institutional ownership is positively associated with financial reporting quality, and this relation is strongest for banks with high information asymmetry and for “monitoring” institutional investors. Institutional investors also sell shares following the announcement of a restatement, suggesting they are willing to use the threat of exit as a mechanism to influence bank managers and demand financial reporting quality. Finally, I find institutional investors demand financial reporting quality primarily for high risk banks and also reduce ex-ante bank risk and ex-post non-performing loans. Collectively, these results suggest institutional investors are an important component of bank governance. / text

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences / Department of History

Att leva upp till intressenters krav och förväntningar anses nödvändigt för att organisationer ska kunna bedriva sin verksamhet. Det tillstånd som råder när företagets värdesystem är i linje med samhällets kallas legitimitet och processen som leder till att en organisation bedöms som legitim kallas legitimering. Förväntningar och krav från intressenter förändras ständigt och under de senaste åren har intressenters ökade förståelse för bland annat miljöproblem, lett till en större medvetenhet om arbetet inom hållbar utveckling. Detta har bidragit till en press på organisationer och företag vad gäller deras ansvar och skyldigheter att rapportera kring deras påverkan på dessa områden. Pressen har resulterat i att de flesta större företag producerar årliga hållbarhetsrapporter och då det saknas lagar och regler för hur dessa rapporter ska se ut använder sig företag av frivilliga principer och riktlinjer vid framtagandet av rapporten.Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för hur legitimitetsteorin kan förklara motiven till att upprätta en hållbarhetsrapport, samt fördjupa diskussionen kring hur innehållet i rapporten används som ett legitimeringsverktyg. Forskningsfrågan som besvaras är hur legitimitets-teorin kan förklara en hållbarhetsrapports motiv och innehåll och för att uppfylla syftet har en kvalitativ studie genomförts och ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv har tillämpats. I studien genomfördes sju stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer. Urvalet begränsades till fyra hållbarhetschefer och tre hållbarhetskonsulter. Empirin bygger dels på information som intervjuerna genererat, och dels på information hämtad från organisationen GRI.Under studien framkom flera motiv till en hållbarhetsrapports upprättande, och flera faktorer som påverkar en hållbarhetsrapports innehåll identifierades. Det faktum att intressenterna har fått en större påverkan över innehållet var tydligt, vilket flera forskare skulle beskriva som en mognad i rapporteringsprocessen. Detta betyder dock inte att det är en problembefriad process, utan svårigheten i att inkludera och prioritera ”rätt” information verkar kvarstå enligt flera av våra respondenter. Vidare visade resultatet på att innehållet speglas av en önskan om att organisationen ska fortsätta att vara legitim, och att rapporten även används som ett verktyg för att reparera skadad legitimitet. Ett primärt fokus på att rapportera om det som är av störst väsentlighet innebär enligt några respondenter en större valfrihet över vad som ska rapporteras. Andra respondenter menar att företag nu inte kan undvika att vara transparenta om känslig information. Legitimitetsteorin kan även förklara valet att utelämna känslig information, då det vid ett offentliggörande finns en risk att legitimiteten kan hotas. Det finns med andra ord ett dilemma som innebär att företag måste vara transparanta för att ha möjlighet att erhålla eller bibehålla legitimitet, samtidigt som transparensen i sig kan leda till en legitimitetskris. / The ability to live up to stakeholders’ requirements and expectations is considered a necessity for organizations in order to manage their business. The condition that exists when the company's value system is in line with the society’s value system is called legitimacy, and the process leading to an organization being deemed as legitimate is called legitimation. Expectations and demands of stakeholders are constantly changing, and stakeholders' increased understanding of e.g. environmental problems has led to a greater awareness of sustainable development in organizations. This has contributed to a pressure on organizations and companies regarding their responsibilities and obligations to report on their impact in these areas. The pressure has resulted in annual sustainability reports from companies of a greater size. In the absence of laws and regulations for how these reports should be prepared, companies use voluntary principles and guidelines when developing the report.The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of how legitimacy theory can explain the motives for establishing a sustainability report, and to deepen the discussion of how the content of the report is being used as a legitimization tool. The research question to be answered is how legitimacy theory can explain a sustainability report's incentives and content and to fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative method was carried out and a hermeneutic perspective was applied. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted and four sustainability managers and three sustainability consultants took part. The empirical data were based on the information generated from the interviews and on the information obtained from the GRI-organization.The study revealed numerous reasons for a sustainability report's existence, and several factors affecting the sustainability report's contents were identified. The fact that stakeholders have a major influence over the content was clear, and several scientists would describe this as a maturity in the reporting process. However, this does not mean that this is a process without difficulties or problems, and troubles to select and prioritize the 'right' information remain. Furthermore, the results showed that the content is mirrored by a desire for the organization to continue to be legitimate, and that the report is also being used as a tool to repair damaged legitimacy. A primary focus on reporting on what is of greatest materiality means according to some respondents a greater choice of what to report. Other respondents believe that this will force companies to be transparent of sensitive information. Legitimacy theory provides an explanation for the choice to exclude sensitive information, since publication of negative information can endanger the perception of the company and the legitimacy can be threatened. In other words, there is a dilemma which means that companies[III]must be transparent in order to obtain or maintain legitimacy, while transparency in itself can lead to a crisis of legitimacy.This thesis is written in Swedish.

Hållbarhetsredovisning är ett relativt nytt fenomen och hur företag ska hantera detta är oklart. Denna studie fokuserar på förändringen över tid av denna typ av rapport från början på 2000-talet fram till de senast publicerade rapporterna, 2013 och 2014 i stora svenska företag. Vi granskade tre företags hållbarhetsrapporter från olika branscher för att identifiera skillnader och likheter med hjälp av en egen analysmodell. Vi valde vidare att utföra denna undersökning med legitimitetsteorin i åtanke för att få en förståelse för varför företag hållbarhetsrapporterar som de gör. Vi kunde se att två av företagen utvecklades relativt mycket från och med att de började hållbarhetsredovisa fram till de senast upprättade rapporterna och uppvisade allt mer relevant information, medan det tredje företaget, i förhållande till de andra två, redan från början hade hög kvalitet på sina hållbarhetsrapporter och därmed inte utvecklades i samma utsträckning. Vi kom fram till att införandet av GRI har påverkat rapporteringen kring hållbar information och att samhällets ökade förväntningar på företag påverkar rapporteringen. / Sustainability reporting is a relatively new phenomenon and how organizations are supposed to handle this is not quite clear. This study focuses on the shift of this type of reporting from the beginning of the 21th century until the latest published sustainability reports from 2013 and 2014 from big Swedish enterprises. The study includes three different enterprises from three different business areas to examine differences and similarities with our own analysis model. Furthermore we decided to conduct this survey with legitimacy theory in mind to get an understanding of why enterprises report on sustainability the way they do. We found that two of the enterprises evolved considerable and the reports included more relevant information over time, while the third enterprise showed, in relation to the other enterprises, relatively consistent information and reports from the early years to 2014. Our study shows that the introduction of GRI has affected reporting of sustainable information and the enhanced expectations of the community on enterprises also influences reporting. This study is conducted in Swedish.