When the Securities and Exchange Commission approved yet another Sarbanes-Oxley compliance deadline delay for small businesses, officials said they would undertake to study the impact of the law on SMBs.

Last week, Wake Forest University announced that its PricewaterhouseCoopers Faculty Fellow, George Aldhizer, will be participating in that SEC-funded study. Aldhizer, who is an associate professor at Wake Forest's Calloway School of Business and Accountancy, will work with market research firms to survey thousands of businesses as to how the regulations impact them.

Aldhizer said:

I am excited to be part of the SEC's first study evaluating companies' costs to comply with these regulations versus the public benefits of these protections. Our findings should help the government reduce unnecessary costs while preserving investor confidence in published financial information.

Final study results are expected in late spring of next year.