Two citation facts and two Sarbanes-Oxley subsections. All four are tested as exact recall, so learn them exactly.
Carroll's pyramid
- Published in Business Horizons, volume 34, issue 4, July 1991, pages 39-48.
- Full title: "The pyramid of corporate social responsibility: Toward the moral management of organizational stakeholders."
The wrong outlets and years: Harvard Business Review, 1979 is Porter's five forces article. Academy of Management Review 1979 and Journal of Business Ethics 1999 are plausible management journals but not the publication record for this article.
The wrong titles, each a real and different piece:
- "Creating shared value: Redefining capitalism and the role of the corporation in society" — a later article by different authors.
- "The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits" — the shareholder-primacy essay.
- "Strategy and society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility" — another CSR article, not Carroll's pyramid piece.
Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404
- 404(a): management assesses and reports on the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting.
- 404(b): the independent auditor attests to management's assessment.
That is the pairing the exam tests, in both directions. If the stem asks who must opine on internal control other than the company's own executives, the answer is 404(b). If it asks who performs the assessment, it is 404(a).
- The audit committee chair alone is never the answer; the statute places the duty on management, not on one board member.
- The SEC is the regulator, not the reporting company.
- Sections 302 and 906 concern officer certifications, not an auditor's attestation on internal control. Management certifying quarterly financial statements is a certification obligation found elsewhere in the Act, not 404(b). A code of ethics for senior financial officers and seven-year retention of audit workpapers are other Sarbanes-Oxley requirements, also not 404(b).
Carry this in: (a) is management, (b) is the auditor.