The spectacular corporate collapses over the past decade, along with the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and similar legislations across the world, have promoted significant awareness of IT governance. However, the causes of success and failure in IT governance framework adoption are yet to be adequately studied. This study aims to address this deficiency by proposing a research model to...

Using the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the associated change in listing standards as a natural experiment, we find that while board independence decreases the cost of debt when credit conditions are strong or leverage low, it increases the cost of debt when credit conditions are poor or leverage high. We also document that independent directors set corporate policies that increase firm...

This paper maintains that archiving has been overlooked as a key spreadsheet internal control. The case of failed Jamaican commercial banks demonstrates how poor archiving can lead to weaknesses in spreadsheet control that contribute to operational risk. In addition, the Sarbanes-0xley Act contains a number of provisions that require tighter control over the archiving of spreadsheets. To mitiga...

The paper shows how excessive reporting, called “crying wolf”, can dilute the information value of reports. Excessive reporting is investigated by undertaking the first formal analysis of money laundering enforcement. Banks monitor transactions and report suspicious activity to government agencies, which use these reports to identify investigation targets. Banks face fines should they fail to r...

ABSTRACT: End user applications (such as spreadsheets) have been cited as a previously ignored yet potentially significant risk to financial reporting in the wake of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC] 2004; Ernst&Young [E&Y] 2004). We developed a realistic spreadsheet model in order to expose students to internal control issues inherent in a spreadsheet environment. By complet...