Publications Database

Welcome to the new Schulich Peer-Reviewed Publication Database!

The database is currently in beta-testing and will be updated with more features as time goes on. In the meantime, stakeholders are free to explore our faculty’s numerous works. The left-hand panel affords the ability to search by the following:

  • Faculty Member’s Name;
  • Area of Expertise;
  • Whether the Publication is Open-Access (free for public download);
  • Journal Name; and
  • Date Range.

At present, the database covers publications from 2012 to 2020, but will extend further back in the future. In addition to listing publications, the database includes two types of impact metrics: Altmetrics and Plum. The database will be updated annually with most recent publications from our faculty.

If you have any questions or input, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 

Search Results

Kieran Taylor-Neu, Abu S. Rahaman, Gregory D. Saxton, Dean Neu (2024). "Tone at the top, corporate irresponsibility and the Enron emails", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 37(9),336-364.

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Keywords
Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine whether senior Enron executive emails celebrated, or at least left a space for, corporate irresponsibility. Engaging with prior organizational-focused research, we investigate how corporate emails sent by senior executives help constitute Enron by communicating to employees senior management’s stance about important topics and social characters.

Design/methodology/approach

The study analyzes the 527,356 sentences contained in 144,228 emails sent by Enron senior executives and other employees in the three-year period (1999–2001) before the company’s collapse. Sentences are used as the base-level speech unit because we are interested in identifying the tone and emotions expressed about specific topics and stakeholders. Tone is measured using Loughran and McDonald’s (2016) financial dictionary approach, and emotion is measured using Mohammad and Turney’s (2013) NRC word-emotion lexicon. Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regressions are used to explore the determinants of senior management tone and emotions.

Findings

The analysis illustrates that while both senior executives and other employees utilized email to help accomplish task-related activities, they employed different evaluative tones to talk about key topics and stakeholders. Also important is what is left unsaid, with a “spiral of silence” emanating from senior management that created a space for corporate irresponsibility.

Originality/value

Combining advanced computerized textual analysis with qualitative techniques, we analyze a unique dataset to explore micro details involved in using email to communicate a tone at the top. The findings illustrate how what is said or not said by senior management contributes to the constitution of an organization.

Farrar, J. and Thorne, L. (2016). "Written Communications and Taxpayers’ Compliance: An Interactional Fairness Perspective", Canadian Tax Journal, 64(2), 351-370.

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Keywords
Abstract Written communication is the primary means used by tax authorities to communicate with taxpayers. Prior research shows that the content of written communications by tax authorities can influence taxpayers’ compliance by appealing to interactional fairness. Interactional fairness refers to the quality of treatment that individuals receive from an authority figure and has two dimensions, tone and information. In written communications from a tax authority, inadvertently or by design, both tone and information are conveyed. In our study, we examine the impact of both dimensions on taxpayers’ compliance through an experiment involving 287 taxpayers. We find an interaction between tone and information, such that compliance is highest in the presence of high information and an authoritative tone. We also find that compliance is positively associated with information. Our findings have practical implications for tax authorities in determining how best to use written communications to encourage taxpayers’ compliance.

Fischer, E. and Reuber, A. (2014). "Online Entrepreneurial Communication: Mitigating Uncertainty and Increasing Differentiation Via Twitter", Journal of Business Venturing, 29(4), 565-583.

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Keywords
Abstract Research shows that some narratives and symbolic actions produced by entrepreneurial firms can help to reduce audience uncertainty about their quality and differentiate them from rivals. But can communications via online social media channels – which we characterize as “communicative streams” – be used to reduce uncertainty and enhance differentiation? This seems debatable, given that such streams comprise multiple, brief messages (a) that encode signals lacking narrative cohesion; (b) are only fleetingly accessible; and (c) are minimally customized. We address this puzzle using qualitative methods to compare the communications enacted by eight firms that are using Twitter in order to pursue growth. Our theoretical contribution rests in positing links between specific types of communicative streams and audience responses that reflect reduced uncertainty or enhanced differentiation. Our analysis suggests that firms enacting a “Multi-dimensional” communicative stream (which entails a high volume of posts, a high proportion of which signal quality, relational orientation, distinctiveness, and positive affect) are most likely to elicit audience affirmation of firms' quality and/or distinctiveness. Implications for theory, research methods and practice are discussed.