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This paper studies whether and how Big-4 firms provide higher-quality audits than non-Big-4 firms. Specifically, we first examine a Big-4 effect and then explore three sources of the Big-4 effect. To test the Big-4 effect, we use a unique data set of individual audit partners for a large sample of private companies and a novel research design exploiting the fact that auditees may follow the auditor who switches affiliation from a non-Big-4 firm to a Big-4 firm. Thus, we compare audit quality and audit fees of the same partner–auditee pairs before and after the switch. The results show that the Big-4 effect exists in the private-firm segment. More important, we find evidence for three sources of the Big-4 effect. First, Big-4 firms are able to recruit non-Big-4 partners who deliver higher audit quality than other non-Big-4 partners in the preswitch period. Second, enhanced learning has taken place after the switch. Third, the increased audit quality can also be attributed to stronger incentives/monitoring . These are new findings to the literature. This paper was accepted by Suraj Srinivasan, accounting .

Research summary: Does the degree to which founders keep control of their startups affect company value? I argue that founders face a \"control dilemma\" in which a startup's resource dependence drives a wedge between the startup's value and the founder's ability to retain control of decision making. I develop hypotheses about this tradeoff and test the hypotheses on a unique dataset of 6,130 American startups. I find that startups in which the founder is still in control of the board of directors and/or the CEO position are significantly less valuable than those in which the founder has given up control. On average, each additional level of founder control (i.e., controlling the board and/or the CEO position) reduces the pre-money valuation of the startup by 17.1–22.0 percent. Managerial summary: A founder's vision and capabilities are key ingredients in the early success of a startup. During those early days, it is natural for the founder to have a powerful, central role. However, as the startup grows, founders who keep too much control of the startup and its most important decisions can harm the value of the startup. Both qualitative case studies and quantitative analyses of more than 6,000 private companies highlight that startups in which the founder has maintained control (by retaining a majority of the board of directors and/or by remaining as CEO) have significantly lower valuations than those where the founder has relinquished control. This is especially true when the startup is three years old or more.

In Coster v. UIP Companies, Inc. (\"Coster II\"), the Delaware Supreme Court adopted a more robust form of enhanced judicial scrutiny for board action that interferes with a stockholder vote for the election of directors. This more muscular enhanced scrutiny is structurally similar to but demonstrably more rigorous than conventional enhanced scrutiny as first introduced in Unocal Corp. v. Mesa Petroleum Co. for board-adopted defensive measures designed to thwart a takeover threat. Like conventional Unocal review, the modified enhanced scrutiny announced in Coster II for stockholder disenfranchisement claims places the burden of proof on the directors to demonstrate the procedural and substantive reasonableness of the board's actions. The board thus must establish that they reasonably determined the existence of a legitimate threat and adopted a response with impact on the stockholder franchise that was reasonable in relation to that threat. Unlike conventional Unocal review, Coster II does not assess the board's actions with a relatively protective \"range of reasonableness\" standard, but instead limits a board's response in the electoral context to \"only what is necessary to counter the threat. \" Board-adopted measures that exceed this minimalist limitation on permitted-board responses in the stockholders' electoral space will be subject to judicial restraint in equity. In adopting a more exacting enhanced scrutiny for disenfranchisement claims in Coster II, the Delaware Supreme Court built upon and reformulated an elevated version of Unocal review that had developed in Court of Chancery decisions over the prior two decades. As part of that reformulation, the court in Coster II explicitly absorbed into its new standard the foundational principles of Schnell and Blasius, ensuring judicial vigilance over the good faith of incumbent boards and the protection of the stockholder franchise from improper interference. The board of a Delaware corporation is vested with the power to manage the firm, but the stockholders have the exclusive power to choose the directors through the stockholder vote or, where available, through action by written consent. This article examines Coster II and argues that the decision properly strengthens Unocal review for electoral interference claims with a robust and practical standard that will uphold corporate democracy by ensuring \"the free exercise of the stockholder vote.\"

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic response brought forth major changes in innovation policy. This article takes stock of the key features of the COVID-19 innovation system-the network of public and private actors influencing the development and diffusion of technologies to combat the pandemic. Before the pandemic, biomedical research and development policy consisted largely of \"push\" funding from the public sector in support of basic research and \"pull\" incentives from patents to motivate private companies to invest in clinical trials and develop drugs and vaccines. In contrast, during the pandemic, public funding shifted its focus to late-stage product development and manufacturing. Procurement agreements with governments replaced traditional pull incentives from patents for the major private companies. Nonpatent barriers to competition may also have incentivized innovation. The challenges to ensuring diffusion have gained in prominence during the pandemic, though it is unclear what role patents will play in pricing and access. Some aspects of this approach to biomedical innovation may be unique to crises, but others could provide lessons for policy beyond the pandemic.

[...]we do not have any data on why business relationships in private companies break down. [...]it is now possible to collect detailed data on why relationships between business owners break down and the specific types of wrongdoing alleged in these lawsuits. In many cases involving public companies, shareholders allege that the board failed to properly oversee the company's affairs or failed to disclose necessary information to shareholders.'® These claims are largely absent from private company litigation. [...]even when public shareholders allege self-dealing, their allegations tend to focus on a specific transaction, rather than a broader pattern of theft or freezeouts. [...]it describes the methodology of the study, outlining the study's parameters and design.

The recent two-decade-long march of “global China” – manifested as outward flows of investment, loans, infrastructure, migrants, media, cultural programmes and international and civil society engagement – has left sweeping but variegated footprints in many parts of the world. From “going out,” officially announced in the year 2000, to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Made in China 2025, and from the developing world to advanced industrialized democracies, state-endorsed campaigns are but tips of a much more momentous iceberg. Numerous Chinese citizens and private corporations have also participated in a global search for employment, business, investment and educational and emigration opportunities. International reactions to the increasingly ubiquitous presence of China and the Chinese people in almost every corner of the world have evolved from a mixture of anxiety and hope to a more explicitly critical backlash. Terms such as “sharp power,” “debt-trap diplomacy” and the “new Cold War” bespeak the West's dominant perception today of China as a threat to be contained.

Purpose Online knowledge sharing is a critical process for maintaining organisational competitive advantage. This paper aims to develop a new conceptual framework that investigates the moderating impacts of innovation on self-efficacy, extrinsic and intrinsic rewards on employees’ online knowledge sharing behaviour in public and private sector companies. Design/methodology/approach This research analysed 200 responses to test the moderating effects of organisational innovation on the relationship between self-efficacy and rewards and online knowledge sharing behviours. The analysis was carried out using component-based partial least squares (PLS) approach and SmartPLS 3 software. Findings The results reveal that self-efficacy significantly affects online knowledge sharing behaviour in firms, regardless of the organisation type. Extrinsic rewards encourage employees in private companies to share knowledge online, whereas intrinsic rewards work effectively in public companies. Additionally, the study found the moderating role of organisational innovation in examining the relationship between rewards and online knowledge sharing behaviour. Research limitations/implications Future research may consider different dimensions such as knowledge donating and collecting behaviours as well as motives, such as self-enjoyment, reciprocity or social interaction ties, which may be investigated to get a deeper understanding of online knowledge sharing behaviour. Practical implications Firms must tailor training and rewards to suit employees’ abilities and needs so as to align with organisation type and innovation. Originality/value The study’s distinctive contribution is the under-researched context of Vietnamese public and private sector banks for investigating the moderating effects of organisational innovation on micro and meso factors on online knowledge sharing behaviour.

In this article, we examine the concept of humility among chief executive officers (CEOs) and the process through which it is connected to integration in the top management team (TMT) and middle managers' responses. We develop and validate a comprehensive measure of humility using multiple samples and then test a multilevel model of how CEOs' humility links to the processes of top and middle managers. Our methodology involves survey data gathered twice from 328 TMT members and 645 middle managers in 63 private companies in China. We find CEO humility to be positively associated with empowering leadership behaviors, which in turn correlates with TMT integration. TMT integration then positively relates to middle managers' perception of having an empowering organizational climate, which is then associated with their work engagement, affective commitment, and job performance. Findings confirm our hypotheses based on social information processing theory: humble CEOs connect to top and middle managers through collective perceptions of empowerment at both levels. Qualitative data from interviews with 51 CEOs provide additional insight into the meaning of humility among CEOs and differences between those with high and low humility.

The authors investigate potential discrimination against people with disabilities through a field experiment that sent job applications to 6,016 accounting positions for which the applicants’ disabilities are unlikely to affect productivity. One-third of the cover letters disclosed that the applicant had a spinal cord injury, one-third disclosed the presence of Asperger’s syndrome, and one-third did not mention disability. The disability applications received 26% fewer expressions of employer interest. This gap was concentrated among experienced applicants and small private companies that are not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Tests suggest possible positive effects of the ADA, but not of state laws, in reducing the disability gap. Results indicate there may be substantial room for employer and policy initiatives to improve employment opportunities for people with disabilities.