Employees spend approximately two hours per day engaging in cyberloafing (i.e., using the internet at work for nonwork purposes) behaviors, costing organizations almost $85 billion dollars per year. As a result, cyberloafing is often considered a counterproductive type of withdrawal behavior. However, recent research suggests that cyberloafing may have some unexpected positive workplace outcomes. Therefore, we argue that the role of workplace cyberloafing is more complex than previously assumed and posit that cyberloafing may provide employees with a way to cope with workplace stress such as exposure to workplace aggression. To examine this proposition, we used a heterogeneous sample of 258 employees to test whether cyberloafing buffers the detrimental effects of workplace aggression exposure on two outcome variables: employees' turnover intentions and job satisfaction. Overall, results supported the notion that employees use cyberloafing as a workplace coping mechanism, which runs counter to the majority of research that conceptualizes cyberloafing as a counterproductive workplace behavior. These findings suggest that managers may consider allowing some degree of cyberloafing so that employees can better cope with work stress. Moreover, managers should directly target stressful workplace conditions (e.g., aggression) that serve as the impetus for cyberloafing behaviors.

The agency problem of listed companies in East Asia is closely related to their typically concentrated ownership structures. Tight control creates an entrenchment problem that allows the controlling owners' self-interested behaviors to go unchallenged internally by the boards of directors or externally by takeover markets. The primary objective of this paper is to explore the association between the ownership and control structure and innovation. The ownership and control structure is measured first as the divergence between the ultimate owner's voting rights and the ultimate owner's cash flow rights, and second by the presence of ultimately controlling shareholder's family member as CEO or Chairman of the board, or both. Innovation is measured by patent quantity and patent quality. This paper uses patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to measure innovation activities. We find that innovation is significantly and negatively related to the level of agency problems. We further find that innovation is lower for firms whose controlling owner is also either the chief executive officer or the chair of the board of directors. Our findings appear to be robust with respect to examining patent count and patent quality variables.

Abstract:The primary objective of this study is to examine the association between the quality of mandatory earnings forecast, measured by forecast accuracy and bias, and the ownership structure of Taiwanese firms, measured by the divergence between the ultimate owner's control and the equity ownership level. The study is based on 528 forecasts issued by Taiwanese listed firms from 1999 to 2001 which were affected by the regulation on disclosure of earnings forecasts issued by the Taiwan Securities and Futures Exchange Commission (TSFEC). First, we find that concentrated ownership and the associated pyramidal and cross-holding structures created agency conflicts between controlling owners and outside investors. Second, we also find that firms tend to issue more inaccurate and optimistically biased forecasts in the presence of the greater divergence between the ultimate owner's control and the equity ownership level. Third, the firms with serious agency problems tended to revise their forecasts more to reduce error or bias or manipulate accruals more (e.g. through discretionary accruals) in order to avoid violating the 20% forecast error threshold as the end of the period approached.Finally, the resulting post-managed forecast error or bias does not significantly vary with the level of ownership concentration

Since 2009, over 176 million patients in the United States have been adversely impacted by data breaches affecting Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–covered institutions. While the popular press often attributes data breaches to external hackers, most breaches are the result of employee carelessness and/or failure to comply with information security policies and procedures. To change employee behavior, we borrow from the organizational climate literature and introduce the Information Security Climate Index, developed and validated using two pilot samples. In this study, four categories of healthcare professionals (certified nursing assistants, dentists, pharmacists, and physician assistants) were surveyed. Likert-type items were used to assess the Information Security Climate Index, information security motivation, and information security behaviors. Study results indicated that the Information Security Climate Index was related to better employee information security motivation and information security behaviors. In addition, there were observed differences between occupational groups with pharmacists reporting a more favorable climate and behaviors than physician assistants.

Accounting literature is replete with quantitative models that use financial ratios to identify the probability of a going concern qualification. These studies, however, ignore qualitative cues that auditors use to identify going concern problems and mitigating factors (sound financial plans etc.) that auditors take into account in their choice of report. Tests whether, in the presence of financial distress, non‐financial cues play an important role in auditors’ choice. Results indicate that non‐financial variables can be used to discriminate between the auditor’s decision to issue the going concern qualified versus the clean report. Helps company management understand how auditors evaluate their clients and the importance of the qualitative criteria used in their evaluation. Can be used to predict the most probable outcome prior to the external audit. Second, facilitates understanding of the non‐financial red flags that could trigger the going concern report. Third, can be used to analyze potential acquisition targets, and, if the acquisition target is still otherwise desirable, be used in pricing negotiations. Fourth, can be applied to aspects of the firm’s own division’s operations in order to enable the internal audit department to better allocate its own investigational and problem‐solving resources. Finally, the fact that qualitative factors have power in predicting the going concern modified report suggests that company decision makers can evaluate others even if the auditor for political or other reasons has chosen not to render a modified report.