Portrayals of Volunteering on U.S. Television: A Textual Analysis

Volunteer managers identify challenging tasks, such as volunteer buy-in, retention, and role matching. Successful management of these tasks is influenced by how volunteers anticipate and perceive their volunteer experience. Volunteers receive and interpret messages about the drivers, rules, and expectations of giving one’s time and expertise from what they observe in the media. Television portrays how society perceives volunteering and compulsory community service. We used textual analysis to interpret portrayals of volunteering in 104 storylines on U.S. television. Television characters portrayed as volunteers were primarily motivated by civic duty, committed on a short-term basis, and had a positive experience. The volunteer manager was often absent. The intended beneficiary need not be present because the volunteer was the ultimate beneficiary. The storylines on TV excluded important components of the volunteer experience, meaning volunteer managers may need to take steps to mitigate problems associated with unrealized expectations of the TV binge-watching volunteers.

Parliament and the principle of elective succession in Elizabethan England

The question of precisely how far parliament should be involved in settling the succession to the crown constitutes a neglected strand of the Elizabethan succession debate. Patrick Collinson and his successors have examined in detail the attempts undertaken by committed Protestants from the 1560s through to the 1580s to secure legislation debarring Mary, queen of Scots. However, this chapter demonstrates that a necessary corollary of the campaign for exclusion was the argument that parliament, even one summoned after Elizabeth’s death without statutory warrant, could determine the identity of her rightful successor or even choose the next ruler. Theoretical justifications of this scenario, however, were seldom disinterested, and were typically designed with a practical purpose and a specific person in mind. It may be a mistake to treat them as expressions of abstract political thought. Drawing on new archival evidence, this chapter reveals that he intended beneficiary of the boldest such scheme propounded in 1586, when the Scottish queen was still alive, was her infant son James. It concludes by reflecting on the memory and polemical uses of Elizabethan parliaments in late Stuart England.

Computer as Confidant: Digital Investment Advice and the Fiduciary Standard

Digital investment advisers are the fastest growing segment of financial technology (fintech) and are disrupting traditional investment advisory delivery models. The computer-led investment advisory service model may be growing particularly quickly due to a confluence of social and political factors. Politicians and regulators have increasingly focused on the standards of care applicable to investment advice providers. Fewer Americans are ready for retirement and many lack access to affordable investment advice. At the same time, comfort with digital platforms have increased, with some preferring electronic interaction over human interaction. Claiming that they can democratize retirement service by providing advice meeting a fiduciary standard at a fraction of the traditional pricing model, robo-advisers hope to capitalize on these social movements and argue that they provide a solution: conflict-free advice to investors with portfolios of all sizes. Though they have voluntarily subjected themselves to the requirements of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (1940 Act), questions remain as to how robo-advisers will meet the fiduciary standard required by such registration. The essay recommends a two-pronged approach for the regulation of robo-advisers in the near term. First, existing regulatory tools such as examination, enforcement, and disclosure should be deployed to robustly explore the sufficiency and malleability of their existing parameters before crafting any new regulatory schemes. Second, the disclosure device should be studied to determine whether the intended beneficiary of the disclosure, retail consumers, comprehend the information being disclosed to them and whether changes to the format, delivery, and/or content of disclosures would better protect consumer investors.

Accounting integration issues of EU member states

The aim of this article is to discuss the dilemmas over the integration of accounting in EU member states. The dilemma could be divided into the following main groups. Dilemma of the user of financial statements. This dilemma consists in determining for whom the integration of accounting in EU is crucial, and who is the intended beneficiary of integration. Dilemma arising from the lack of theoretical framework for drafting directives and standards: the accounting paradigm assuming that accounting is strictly quantitative. Accounting is a social science, whereas the accounting practice has greater influence on social, rather than purely economic, reality. Dilemma over legal regulations and the legitimization of standard setters could be attributed to accounting regulations as legal norms. A classic example of this might be the transition from rule-based to principle-based IFRSs. The dilemma over the legitimization of standard setters has its roots in the legal aspect of accountancy. In order to solve it, it is necessary to answer the question: ‘who controls the processes of accounting integration?’ since the participants of this process often present divergent viewpoints, and sometimes even opposite priorities. Dilemma over the politicization of accountancy. The more globalized and complex the economic environment is, the more of political intervention there is expected to be in the standard setting process, affected by global geopolitical trends.