Digital Commons Network^™

The Influence Of Cognitive Factors On The Relationship Between Accounting Standard Precision And Aggressive Financial Reporting, Kara E. Hunter

2017

The U.S. SEC has formally advocated for the creation of a single set of global accounting standards. As the SEC considers converging U.S. GAAP with IFRS, there is heightened interest in how the precision of accounting standard influences the quality of the financial reporting process. My dissertation consists of three studies that seek to address how accounting standard precision interacts with different behavioral factors to influence aggressive financial reporting decisions and auditor judgment. Paper one presents evidence of a significant interactive effect of standard precision and preparer incentive horizon. Specifically, we find evidence that when the incentive horizon is long …

The Influence Of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure On Stakeholder Decision-Making, Andrew C. Stuart

2017

As part of the Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative, the SEC is seeking public comments on whether sustainability disclosures are important to investors’ decisions. The interest in sustainability disclosures by the SEC coincides with the recent increase in companies voluntarily publishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. My dissertation consists of three studies that examine CSR disclosures, with an emphasis on how disclosure influences stakeholder decision-making.

Part one reviews the CSR disclosure literature contained in accounting journals. I find an overlap between CSR disclosure issues and traditional accounting issues examined in the literature. Focusing on where the issues overlap, I separate the CSR …

What To Do Amid Disruption? Ethical Climate And Trust As Determinants Of Virtual Team Member Effort, Kenneth Mullane

2017

Although the effects of ethical climate and trust on individual behavior have been investigated within organizations, understanding how this relationship unfolds within virtual teams has been largely overlooked. In response to this gap, I use social exchange theory to integrate research on ethical climate and trust to develop a model of individual virtual team member effort. Specifically, when virtual teams experience an event that disrupts existing work procedures and workflow, this can negatively affect levels of trust between teammates and jeopardize member contributions to the team. I argue that virtual team member perceptions of a caring (i.e., other-focused) ethical climate …

Environmental, Social, And Governance Risk And Performance: Implications For Audit And Corporate Governance Research, Jenna J. Burke

2017

This dissertation examines oversight of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related risk and performance. These considerations are a new piece of business language, and are crucial in monitoring and evaluating the sustainable impact of modern corporations. The dissertation is comprised of three archival studies, which together contribute to an emerging accounting literature at the intersection of audit and corporate governance. The first study uses hand-collected data on voluntary board-level committees that oversee ESG-related issues to investigate the performance implications of these committees. This paper presents a theoretical framework and methodology that incorporate the committee’s role in shared value creation and …