Business Commons^™

A Comparison Of M&T Bank And Citizens Bank Net Income Changes During The Coronavirus Pandemic, Alex R. Glasier

Applied Economics Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic had a tremendous impact on every aspect of life, particularly within the world of banking & finance. All banks saw sharp drops in their stock prices and net income, but my hypothesis is that larger, more established banks maintained more stability during 2020 than smaller banks. This paper analyzes the income statements and balance sheets of M&T Bank (an older, more well-established bank) and Citizens Bank (a less-established bank) during this difficult time.

The first part of my thesis describes similarities and differences between M&T Bank and Citizens Bank. I explain how these similarities and differences may …

A Welfare Comparison Of Historical Cost And Fair Value Accounting Regimes, Palmer Edholm

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

With ongoing controversy concerning fair value and historical cost accounting, existing accounting theory is focused on intra-firm decision making and is thus deficient in addressing the issue of maximizing social welfare. I propose models of historical cost and fair value accounting regimes which are embedded in models of monopoly and oligopoly. This allows for social welfare implications. I find that historical cost results in greater expected profits for both monopolists and oligopolists. However, if the market is elastic enough, a fair value regimes is welfare enhancing. Whereas, if the market is inelastic enough, historical cost is welfare enhancing.

Coeur Mining Inc. A Financial Statement Analyis, Justin Czech

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This Financial Statement Analysis of Coeur Mining Inc. looks at the firms, past, present, and future projects, trends, and financial statements in order to come to a conclusion about the firm as a whole, and the stock of the firm. In this analysis, I will discuss the firm as compared to a competitor firm; Compass Minerals Inc. Through this comparison, I will decide the strength and legitimacy of the financial statements of Coeur Mining Inc.

Do Chief Financial Officers Need To Be Qualified Accountants? A Study Of Whether And When Accounting Qualification May Not Be Necessary For Cfos., Vincent Boon Seng Lim

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Many empirical research studies suggest that Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) with accounting qualifications improve company performance in various ways such as through better financial reporting accuracy (Aier et al., 2005), internal control (Li et al., 2010), corporate governance (Sun et al., 2015) and tax efficiency (Chen et al., 2020). This suggests that CFOs should be qualified in accounting. However, this study found that this may not always be the case.

By looking at the top listed companies in Singapore, it was found that a significant percentage of CFOs are not accounting qualified, which indicates a significant gap. The study conducted …

Towards A Revised Model For Cpa Firm Ownership And Compensation In A Tight Labor Market And A Changing Culture, Andrew Thomas

Dissertations

The Post Senior Manager (PSM) position is a relatively new development in accounting firms. PSMs are accountants who do not make partner either by personal choice or firm decision. Research relating to PSMs in large firms has indicated that demographics, especially gender, work-life balance issues, managerial skill, and geographic preferences, play a role in determining who becomes a PSM. Research also notes that PSMs are viewed as economically vital to firms since their high skill level and billed hours represent an essential component of firm revenue. At the same time, research notes that PSMs are often viewed unfavorably for not …

The Implications Of Fraud On Non-Shareholder Stakeholders, Chasen P. Spicer

Senior Theses

Popular news outlets such as The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal frequently release articles detailing the financial losses incurred by shareholders of a company that have recently been publicly exposed for their fraudulent activities (Shumsky, 2018; Whitmire, 2005). Given that shareholders are visibly impacted by fraud, it is also reasonable to believe that other stakeholders experience repercussions from the fraudulent activities carried out by the company (Velikonja, 2013). To provide more insight into the implications of fraud incurred by non-shareholder stakeholders, I conduct a case study analysis of HealthSouth’s various fraudulent activities between the years of 1997 …

Corporate Tax Avoidance And Fraud Risk, Zhonghua Cao

Dissertations

Corporate Tax Avoidance and Fraud Risk

There is mixed evidence on whether corporate tax avoidance (CTA) is positively or negatively related to aggressive financial reporting. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) requires that auditors assess fraud risks that are related to aggressive financial reporting. In this study I extend the research of CTA by examining the relationship between CTA and fraud risk. I use accrual quality related variables, performance variables, and non-financial measures (NFMs) to measure fraud risk. Drawing on agency theory and fraud risk triangle theory, I find that CTA is positively related to fraud risk. However, I …

Bondholders’ Influence On Corporate Disclosure: Evidence From Capital Expenditure Forecasts As A Firm’S Commitment, Sae Young Yoon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper addresses how firms cater to bondholders’ demand for additional information by examining capital expenditure (capex) forecasts prior to bond issuance. While bondholders’ demand for additional information incentivizes firms to be more transparent, the importance of macroeconomic factors and comparable bonds outstanding in bond pricing might, however, decrease the benefit of additional disclosure. Using the difference-in-differences approach, I document that firms provide more capex forecasts prior to bond issuance. This increase in capex forecasts is detected when bonds are issued for capital expenditure purposes or when investment-restricting covenants protect bondholders. Next, I find that firms provide more conservative capex …

Full Disclosure: Model Uncertainty In Adjusting For Confounders, Dieudonne Dusenge

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the role of knowledge about underlying causal relationships in classifying controls in order to mitigate omitted- and included-variable biases. Using simulations and accounting examples, the study shows that the researcher may not distinguish good and bad controls because the underlying causal relationships are unobservable, and remedying strategies (such as the relative timing of measurement) may not remove the uncertainty in the classification. Because of the uncertainty about which controls to use, two or more models will be credible as will the distinct estimates derived from them. Next, the study shows that the current standard practice of singling …

Lean Accounting: A Connection To Strategic Partnership & Collaboration Between Management Accountants And Operations Managers, Colleen Mpofu

Dissertations

Technological advances, such as automation and artificial intelligence, have transformed the accounting profession. There is a consensus in the academic and practitioner literature that management accountants must move from their traditional role into one that serves as a strategic partner. However, literature that examines how management accountants have moved from this traditional role to one that is more strategic is limited. This study combines concepts from three different literature streams to explore how utilizing lean accounting practices relate to management accountant’s participation in strategic decision making, partnership with operations managers, and overall operational performance in manufacturing firms utilizing a lean …

Passive Institutional Ownership, Firm Disclosure, And Post-Earnings Announcement Drift, Jingxin Hu

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation consists of four chapters. Chapter one is the introduction. Chapter two examines the impact of passive institutional ownership on firm disclosure. Passive institutional investors favor more information to minimize monitoring and trading costs. However, passive institutions' diverse holdings make it costly to collect individual firms' private information, so they demand more public information. Managers are likely to supply more firm material information because passive institutions can exert influence by using their sizeable ownership stake. More firm disclosure is related to a better firm information environment and higher stock liquidity. To test the hypothesis, I choose the S&P 500 …

Do Auditors Respond To Changes In Clients’ Analyst Coverage? Evidence From A Natural Experiment, Mohammad Alkhamees

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Prior research has established that analysts serve as an important monitor of managementand improve the quality of firms’ financial reporting. In this study, I utilize the natural experiment resulting from the mergers and closures of brokerage houses, to examine whether this exogenous change in firms’ information environment impacts the audit process. Specifically, I examine whether reductions in analyst coverage have an effect on auditor effort proxied by audit fees and audit report lag, as well as financial reporting quality, measured by future restatements. I find that client firms pay significantly higher audit fees following an exogenous reduction in analyst coverage …

Are All Pictures Worth 1,000 Words? An Investigation Of Fit Between Graph Type And Performance On Accounting Data Analytics Tasks, Shawn Paul Granitto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The usefulness of accounting data is directly dependent on the presentation and interpretation of the data (DeSanctis and Jarvenpaa 1989; Brown-Liburd et al. 2015; Cao et al. 2015). While both corporate accounting and public accounting have a large focus on data analytics and visualizations, accountants in both fields have reported to have minimal experience creating visualizations and observe a growing use of visualizations within their role (Krumwiede 2019; Buchheit et al. 2020; Gibson et al. 2020). Vessey (1991) finds that the appropriateness of a visualization can impact a user’s decision-making performance. Although prior studies have provided suggestions of when to …

Economic Policy Uncertainty And Non-Gaap Reporting, Ryan H. Wynne

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on non-GAAP reporting. Prior research documents that numerous factors influence the frequency and quality of non-GAAP earnings disclosures, but the expected association between EPU and non-GAAP reporting is unclear. On the one hand, greater EPU may increase investor demand for additional financial information, while on the other hand, more EPU may lead to less non-GAAP disclosure by making core or recurring earnings more difficult to predict. Additionally, greater EPU may provide increased opportunity for managers to use non-GAAP reporting to mislead investors. I document a significantly positive association, on average, …

Non-Profit Accounting And Financial Strategies For The Exponential Age, Nathan A. Judd

Honors Projects

This research project was designed to introduce the current state of digital assets with all of its potential risks and rewards within the non-profit business sector. Non-profit organizations receive donations constantly, but what happens when an individual gives a digital asset such as Bitcoin to the non-profit? The answer is quite complicated from an accounting and strategic business approach but will be unpacked and reviewed. Other nonprofit topics included are the exponential network effects for digital assets, official FASB accounting regulation treatments for digital assets, taxation documentation from the IRS regarding digital assets, and potential implementation strategies to consider.

The Effect Of Management’S Focus On Sasb Measures On Financial Performance: A Study Of The Health Care Supply Chain Sector, James C. Morell

College of Business Theses and Dissertations

Publicly traded companies are coming under increasing pressure from investors and the media to demonstrate their commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) sustainability, and there are many ESG models competing for the attention of the board and senior management team (Burke, 2020, Fatemi, 2017, and Jebe, 2019). In response to this pressure the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has prepared a “Directors’ Guide to the SASB Standards” for eleven industries (Value Reporting Foundation, 2021). The objective of this study was to provide evidence to support the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s claim that organizational adoption and strategic focus on its …

A More Efficient And Effective Objective Measure Of Financial Disclosure Quality: Omissions Of Seven Key Financial Statement Variables, Ying Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation research includes three Chapters. Chapter One proposes a new and simple measure of financial reporting quality. Chapter Two and Chapter Three apply this new measure to examine the association between financial reporting quality and firms' internal governance issues, such as internal control quality and a possible outcome of internal control weakness (ICW), financial restatements.In Chapter One of the thesis, I propose a parsimonious, theory-based and empirically-supported measure of missing variables, REPORT. Chen et al. (2015) proposes a measure of disclosure quality, DQ, based on missing financial statement variables. DQ includes hundreds of items and is complex to program. …

Marcus Corporation Financial Statement Analysis, Leticia Esteves Rodovalho

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This financial statement analysis of Marcus Corporation is focused on historical financial performance. In this analysis, I will discuss how the firm is performing and compare their financial results to one of their major competitors. Marcus Corporation is based in Milwaukee, WI. The benchmark that will be presented is AMC Entertainment, which is also a company based in the Midwest, with its headquarters in Leawood, KS.

Does Tax Curriculum Or Vita Participation Correlate With Improved Reg Section Cpa Exam Scores?, Sunshine Coombs, Sunshine Coombs

Honors College Theses

Abstract

Students who graduate with an accounting degree often take the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam to increase their earning potential and gain prestige within the accounting profession. The Regulation (REG) section of this exam exemplifies a student's knowledge in the United States’ tax filing system and makes up a quarter of the total exam. Accounting students often participate in Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs which may provide an avenue of preparation for the REG section of the CPA exam. This research aims to identify if there is a connection between universities that offer a VITA program and their …

Comprehensive Investigation Of The Accounting Principles Through Case Studies, Mary Frances Williams

Honors Theses

The following thesis consist of thirteen accounting case studies that were presented as the curriculum followed in the Accounting 420 class. Each case covers a topic that relates to the basic accounting principles and the accounting industry. This thesis represents a deep analysis of accounting principles and demonstrates a well-rounded understanding of the topics covered. Each case study is completed under the direction of Victoria Dickinson in abides with all requirements for the Patterson School of Accountancy, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, and the University of Mississippi ACCY 420 course in the 2020-2021 academic year.

Financial Accounting Case Studies, Amanda Arnold

Honors Theses

Accountancy 420 provided many opportunities to gain knowledge involving the application of financial accounting in real-world practice. The class involved a series of case studies, an opportunity to participate in a case study competition, as well as the opportunity to hear from various professionals throughout the realm of public accounting.

The case studies covered many areas involving the preparation of entering the field of accounting. Many case studies were geared towards career preparation such as determining location preferences, such as the Tale of Two Cities case study, and also gaining knowledge through first-hand accounts of an accountant in the Interview …

An Investigation Of Accounting Matters Through An Accumulation Of Case Studies, Sean Fitzhenry

Honors Theses

The following thesis is a compilation of case studies concerning assorted accounting topics. The studies range in subject from an interview with an inspiring business professional to discerning potential financial and accounting solutions for the massive global company, Google, and many more.

What Is Insurance? An Analysis Of The Tax Deductibility Of Captive Insurance Premiums, John D. Patten

Honors Capstones

What is insurance for the purposes of a tax deduction? The Internal Revenue Code does not define insurance. Without this definition, taxpayers using alternative insurance products to manage their risks must look to case law to determine whether their arrangements count as tax deductible insurance or non-deductible self-insurance. This paper dives into the four prongs of insurance: insurance risk, risk shifting, risk distributing, and commonly accepted notions of insurance. This paper looks to cases that have dealt with the deduction of captive insurance premiums to provide better insight into the practical application of this test. After discussing the evolution of …

Accounting Case Studies, James Mclemore

Honors Theses

This thesis is a study of financial accounting through a collection of case studies. This thesis took place over the course of two semesters in Accounting 420. Dr. Victoria Dickinson led the class and advised the students in this class for each case study. There are 11 case studies that comprise this thesis including: A Tale of Two Cities, Asset Concepts, Excel Course, Taxodus – Playing the Global Tax Avoidance Game, Business Interview – Melissa Meacham, Case Competition – Overview, Case Competition – Audit, Case Competition – Tax, Case Competition – Advisory, Case Competition – Earnings, Stock Price, and …

A Case-By-Case Study Of The Accounting Profession, Francena Sekul

Honors Theses

This thesis is the composite result of a year of guided study covering various areas of financial reporting. There are a total of twelve case studies included in this thesis. Five of the case studies relate to a case competition that was created by Dr. Victoria Dickinson for her Honors Accy 402 class. For the case competition, I worked with a group of four other honors accounting students to put together a case for the Coca-Cola Company. We did a thorough analysis of the company and prepared audit, tax, and advisory strategies that would benefit Coca-Cola. To conclude our case …

A Compilation Of Financial Accounting Case Studies, Erin Krumwiede

Honors Theses

This thesis will cover varies accounting subjects. Subject matter was provided by the Patterson School of Accountancy. Topics discussed include proposed accounting changes, tax regulations, a case study of a public company, and an analysis of the 2008 financial crisis.

Practicum In The Study Of Financial Accounting, Laine Keel

Honors Theses

This paper was intended to be a practicum in the study of financial accounting. The different sections encompass many distinct aspects of the field and was completed over two semesters. Each section had a goal to investigate a specific area related to accounting, and my mission was to focus on this area and express my thoughts on the section. To do this, I would explain how each topic was related to accounting and how that would affect me in my future positions – often alone but sometimes as a part of a group. Additionally, this deep dive into the various …

An Analysis Of Various Financial Reporting Standards, Mary Grace Gaines

Honors Theses

This analysis is a compilation of one year’s work in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honor’s College’s Accounting Practicum Program over the 2020-2021 academic year. Under the direction of Dr. Victoria Dickinson, this thesis is composed of eleven case studies ranging from an analysis on asset concepts to a group project assessing Amazon’s financial statements. Each case study granted the opportunity to dive deeper into a specific topic in the field of accountancy and apply the topic to the business world. Through purposeful research, scholarly conclusions have been made regarding various financial standards and other unique issues related to accounting.

A Series Of Case Studies, Bailey Baudier

Honors Theses

Throughout the course of my junior year at the University of Mississippi, I was given the amazing opportunity to work with Dr. Victoria Dickinson and complete my thesis as an accounting major. Each week, we were given a case assignment to work on with a different topic to cover. From potential future living arrangements to researching a financial crisis, our range never settled for anything lower than the high expectations given as an honors student. All of this was used to prepare us for the dedication we needed to put in for our most important assignment. In the last semester …

Case Studies For Accountancy, Davis Judd

Honors Theses

This Thesis is a combination of 11 case studies written over the course of my junior year. Roughly half of these case studies were completed by myself. Case study two was completed as a group that included David Dykes, Noah Nix, and Sean Fitzhenry. Case studies six through ten were completed with Avery Andress, Josh Pearson, Olivia Meyer, and Shivani Chaudhary. These studies challenged us to research a public company and provide services for auditing, tax, and consulting. The remaining studies were a variety of research-based cases to better prepare us for the professional world. Some were more personalized to …