The Unintended Consequences of Sarbanes-Oxley

Tags: Entrepreneurship / Technology Policy

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The roundtable focused on measures relating to corporate governance and auditing controls. Specifically, the roundtable identified SOX-related measures which discussants deemed most important and, moreover, identified measures which discussants deemed onerous— especially for emerging growth companies. More generally, the participants considered more cost effective strategies for securities regulation and, in particular, considered why institutions that should have detected recent high-profile instances of corporate fraud (such as Enron) failed to do so until very late in the process. Finally, discussants examined recent concerns about corporate wrongdoing, such as options backdating and the HP wiretapping scandal. In particular, they explored how legal, accounting, and business professionals could be encouraged to take risks while working to promote legal and ethical behavior.

 

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