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This paper investigates the role of peer effects in the employee welfare policies of organizations. Using US panel data for a sample of 11,451 firm‐year observations from 1996 to 2017, we find that firms' employee welfare decisions are driven by their peers and show that peer firms play a significant role in defining corporate employee welfare policies. Our findings are robust to various sensitivity checks, including alternative definitions of employee welfare, alternative peer proxies and several identification strategies. Our additional analysis shows that herding behaviour is prevalent in followers, who mimic leaders' behaviour, but we do not find any such relationship for industry leaders. Further, we show evidence suggesting that mimetic and normative isomorphic pressures are driving the peer effects. Finally, we examine the economic consequences of peer mimicking in employee welfare policies and show that it improves focal firms' value and innovation. Our findings on firms' peer effects and herding behaviour have policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an earlier study on the audit services market, I showed that an individual client firm's likelihood of imitation in auditor selection systematically varied along with its relative position among competing peers within the industry. This paper extends that finding to the aggregate industry level by shifting the analytical focus from within-industry to between-industry variation. The data on 2254 auditor–client pairs across 45 manufacturing industries in the United States are examined to specify the social structural conditions under which the firms are more, or less, likely to produce the outcome of isomorphism. In general, the more hierarchically stratified an industry, the more likely it is to have a highly homogeneous practice among the firms within it. Inequality leads to and exacts behavioral homogeneity. There is, however, a threshold in the relationship between the aggregate homogeneity and the industry structure: When the disparity between the top and middle tiers is too large, the social reference process breaks down and the level of homogeneity declines. This industry-level finding complements the earlier firm-level finding and empirically substantiates the mechanism of mimetic isomorphism, further elaborating the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the future, environmental disasters and resource constraints will continue to impact the public sector audit environment. Governments will be held responsible for their responses and the corresponding financial impacts, particularly rising levels of public debt. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) are vital in keeping governments accountable. Yet, they also need legitimacy and they are subject to isomorphic pressures to gain this. Mimetic isomorphism explains SAIs' structures, although they remain diverse, worldwide. Our analysis of extensive data about SAIs together with statistical measures about countries, an international survey and document analysis enables us to make projections about what isomorphic pressures will shape SAIs and enable them to deal with an uncertain future. Examining public debt and the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals as case studies, we show how isomorphism will shape SAIs' responses to an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title compound, tetrachlorido-1κ Cl;2κ3 Cl-(2,2,7,7,12,12,17,17-octamethyl-21,22,23,24-tetraazapentacyclo[16.2.1.13,6.18,11.113,16]tetracosane-1κ4 N, N′, N′′, N′′′)-μ2-oxido-diiron(III), [Fe2Cl4O(C28H52N4)], undergoes a slow phase transformation at ca 173 K from monoclinic space group P21/ n, denoted form (I), to the maximal non-isomorphic subgroup, triclinic space group P, denoted form (II), which is accompanied by nonmerohedral twinning [twin fractions of 0.693 (4) and 0.307 (4)]. The transformation was found to be reversible, as on raising the temperature the crystal reverted to monoclinic form (I). In the asymmetric unit of form (I), Z′ = 1, while in form (II), Z′ = 2, with a very small reduction ( ca 1.8%) in the unit-cell volume. The two independent molecules ( A and B) in form (II) are related by a pseudo-twofold screw axis along the b axis. The molecular overlay of molecule A on molecule B has an r.m.s. deviation of 0.353 Å, with the largest distance between two equivalent atoms being 1.202 Å. The reaction of calix[4]pyrrolidine, the fully reduced form of meso-octamethylporphyrinogen, with FeCl3 gave a red-brown solid that was recrystallized from ethanol in air, resulting in the formation of the title compound. In both forms, (I) and (II), the FeIII atoms are coordinated to the macrocyclic ligand and have distorted octahedral FeN4OCl coordination spheres. These FeIII atoms lie out of the mean plane of the four N atoms, displaced towards the O atom of the [OFeCl3] unit by 0.2265 (5) Å in form (I), and by 0.2210 (14) and 0.2089 (14) Å, respectively, in the two independent molecules ( A and B) of form (II). The geometry of the [OFeCl3] units are similar, with each FeIII atom having a tetrahedral coordination sphere. The NH H atoms are directed below the planes of the macrocycles and are hydrogen bonded to the coordinated Cl− ions. There are also intramolecular C-H...Cl hydrogen bonds present in both (I) and (II). In form (I), there are no significant intermolecular interactions present. In form (II), the individual molecules are arranged in alternate layers parallel to the ac plane. The B molecules are linked by a C-H...Cl hydrogen bond, forming chains along [100]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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