Beedie School of Business News

Certification by CEOs and CFOs as to the accuracy of their firms’ financial statements is required by the Canadian Securities Administrator (CSA). As a result, the Risk Management and Governance (RMG) Board of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) has put together a series of guides to help CEOs and CFOs fulfill their responsibilities regarding the signing of certificates. Certification consists of two steps: disclosure controls, and internal controls over financial reporting. Such controls should ensure that information provided in financial statements complies with GAAP; accurately reflects the firms operations; and that unauthorized transactions are prevented, or at least detected, to prevent error in financial statements. Keep reading…

May 27, 2008
Faculty and Doctoral Seminal
Dr Felix Tan, AUT University, New Zealand

Felix Tan is Professor of Information Systems, Director of Research Management and Head of the University Research Office at AUT University, New Zealand. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Global Information Management. Dr Tan is internationally known for his work in the global IT field, focusing on the areas of electronic commerce, global information management, business-IT alignment, and the management of IT. Dr Tan has published in MIS Quarterly, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Information & Management, Journal of Information Technology, and Information Systems Journal.

Felix Tan’s presentation to SFU’s faculty and doctoral students looked at the skills required by IT Project Managers for improving IT risk governance. His research analyzed the characteristics of competent and incompetent project managers to elicit a panel of nine skill categories which could be combined into skill archetypes for effective IT project management.

The importance of corporate governance is accepted. It reduces conflicts between owners and the custodians of their money, management. It limits managers from using the firm to serve their own ends, and prevents controlling owners from unduly taking over the firm. Good governance implies better monitoring, which is understood to improve financial performance. After the recent spate of high-profile governance failures, these principles have driven an increase in compliance regulation through vehicles like Sarbanes-Oxley and company law reforms. Keep reading…

Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, Tyco. Over the past five years these names have become synonymous with financial manipulation for the purposes of personal gain. The blame for the recent explosion of accounting scandals has been placed on moral decay in corporations; and a lack of oversight by boards, auditors, investment analysts, regulators, and the media. However, this analysis ignores the importance of the conditions which enabled these scandals to occur in the first place. Keep reading…

On March 12, 2008, the CIBC Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Management, in collaboration with the Shareholders Association for Research and Education, hosted a breakfast for 150 at SFU’s Segal Graduate School of Business, to hear representatives from three organizations speak about the UN-initiated Principles of Responsible Investing (PRI). The speaker panel consisted of Donald McDonald, a trustee with British Telecom Pension Plan; David Russell, Co-head of Responsible Investing for the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) in the UK; and James Gifford, Executive Director of the Principles for Responsible Investment. This public dialogue provided an opportunity for the investment and business communities, faculty, students, and experts to discuss some of the most pressing issues that face investors in a globalizing world, particularly large institutional investors. Particular attention was given to how investors must increasingly incorporate environmental, social and governance issues into their decision-making, especially as a way of controlling their own risk exposure.

The Segal Graduate School of Business also hosted the Secretariat of the PRI for their Board Meeting in Vancouver – the first time this international group has met outside New York and Geneva. Other events included an information session evening at the Business School with experts from the UN-PRI which was hosted by the bcIMC.

The Principles for Responsible Investment is an investor initiative in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI)_ and the UN Global Compact. The PRI were developed by an international group of institutional investors to reflect the increasing relevance of environmental, social, and corporate governance issues in investment practices. The UN-PRI signatories now include approximately 275 institutional investors with aggregated assets of over $11 trillion.

The Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Management at Simon Fraser University’s Segal Graduate School of Business, is premised on the belief that good governance requires an enterprise-wide view of risk management. The Centre champions a multi-disciplinary approach that supports and promotes specialized and integrative research as well as advanced educational activities.

(front row left to right)
Donald McDonald, Chair of PRI and trustee of the British Telecom Pension Plan; Peter Chapman of Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE); Shannon Rohan of SHARE; Dr. Daniel Shapiro, Dean, SFU Business;

(top row, left to right)
James Gifford, Executive Director, UN- PRI; Brigid Barnett, Manager of Responsible Investing, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, David Russell, Co-Head of Responsible Investment for the Universities Superannuation Scheme; Robert Adamson, Executive Director, CIBC Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Measurement

Contact:
Robert Adamson
Executive Director
CIBC Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Management
778.772.5267

March 11, 2008
Faculty and Doctoral Seminar
Dr. Alan Muller, University of Amsterdam Business School

SFU’s CIBC Centre for Corporate Governance and Risk Management was host to Alan Muller from the University of Amsterdam. Alan presented to SFU faculty members and post-graduate students the findings of research that he and Ans Kolk conducted on corporate social performance (CSP) among auto parts suppliers in Mexico. Their research looked at the drivers of CSP among 121 foreign-owned and local firms. While previous research showed that external drivers (i.e. trade-related pressures) were the main influencers of socially responsible corporate behavior, these authors found that internal drivers (i.e. managerial values) are essential, causing an interaction effect without which CSP would be far less effective.

Alan and Ans’s research was interesting from a number of perspectives. Firstly, their methodology –conducting an internet-based survey – presented challenges as well as unique data collection and analysis opportunities. Secondly, the response rate was lower for multinationals than for local suppliers, which presented both theoretical and empirical dilemmas. Third, the importance of internal ethics and values in the determination of CSP had not previously been measured in an emerging market context. The statistical evidence of an interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of CSP found by the authors was a significant step forward for the field of corporate social responsibility and international business research.

Alan Muller’s approach to research on MNE strategy has been widely recognized as groundbreaking. As senior researcher with the Expert Center for Sustainable Business and Development Cooperation he has played a leading role in projects for the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Dutch NGO on public-private partnerships in developing countries and conducted research into transfer pricing issues.