Business Commons^™

The Effect Of Board Links, Audit Partner Tenure, And Related Party Transactions On Misstatements: Evidence From Chile, Sakthi Mahenthiran, Berta Silva Palavecinos, Hanns De La Fuente-Mella

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Companies restate when material misstatements are identified in previously issued financial statements. Misstatement research in Latin America is sparse, even though they are an important context to study this phenomenon. Chile’s corporate governance regulations are considered exemplars for Latin American countries but its auditing profession is not well developed. Thus, Chile provides an interesting context to study the complementary roles of audit and board governance affecting misstatements. Using a sample of 104 Chilean listed firms over seven years, our study finds that the board links and audit partner tenure negatively affect misstatements. Specifically, given the prevalence of related party transactions …

Stock Market Contagion During The Global Financial Crises: Evidence From The Chilean Stock Market, Sakthi Mahenthiran, Tom Gjerde, Berta Silva

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The study examines evidence for the transmission of the US and EU financial crises via investor holdings into the Chilean stock market following two global financial crises, in 2008 and 2011. The study modified the models of Bekaert et al. (2014), and Dungey and Gajurel (2015) on the 2007–2009 global financial crisis and extends the period to include the European debt crisis of 2010–2011. The study produced three main contributions. First, changes in the equity holdings of retail investors were a key source of contagion following the 2008 US financial crisis. Second, investor herding during the 2011 financial crisis is …

Assigning Triaged Patients To Treatment Rooms In A Hospital Emergency Department, Barry E. King E. King, Tyler Pollard, Jennifer Rice, Jane Siegler

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The assigning of new arrivals at a hospital emergency department to treatment rooms was examined. New patients are summarily triaged and assigned to a treatment room based on severity of their symptoms, the grade of a treatment room, and an exponential benefit curve that encourages the solver to schedule the most severe cases early. SAS’s OPTMODEL modeling language was employed to build the model and SAS’s MILP solver was used to perform the scheduling. Up to thirty patients were optimally assigned to depict the example of a large emergency department.

Additional Evidence On The Impact Of The International Financial Reporting Standards On Earnings Quality: Evidence From Latin America, Mauricio Melgarejo

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) has an impact on the quality of earnings in Latin America. Studying a sample offirms from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru, I find that management reports a lower level of discretionary accruals after the implementation of the IFRS. In addition, this study provides evidence that earnings are more persistent and stock prices are more associated with earning numbers after the application of IFRS. This paper provides evidence that earnings quality has increased after the adoption of IFRS in Latin America.

Analysis Of Public Accountants: What Personality Traits And Skill Sets Distinguish Auditors And Tax Accountants In The Public Accounting Sphere?, Lauren Madison Wood

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The two main career paths within public accounting are auditing and tax accounting. Auditors render an opinion as to whether a client’s financial statements are fairly presented, while tax accountants provide tax-planning services and prepare tax returns. This study examines the personality traits and non-accounting skill sets of practicing auditors and tax accountants to determine whether there are significant differences between the types of people working in each field. Prior research has analyzed the personality and skill sets of accountants in relation to marketing professionals or financial analysts, but little research has compared the two types of public accountants directly. …

Does Beating Cash Flow Benchmarks Reduce The Cost Of Debt?, Mauricio A. Melgarejo

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This paper examines whether beating previous year cash flow values and analysts' cash flow forecasts impact the firms' cost of debt. Creditors are expected to be more concerned about firm solvency than firm profitability. Accordingly, if lenders have any reference point it may be related to cash flow numbers. This study finds that firms that beat analysts' cash flow forecasts have smaller initial bond yield spreads in the next period and a decrease in their initial bond yield spreads between consecutive periods. This effect is more pronounced at short maturities and for observations with less informative earnings. Firms with lower …

The Stock Market’S Reaction To Accounting Information: The Case Of The Latin American Integrated Market Abstract, Mauricio A. Melgarejo, Eduardo Montiel, Luis Sanz

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The purpose of this paper is to explore the stock market’s reaction to quarterly financial statements. We focus our study in two countries that are participating in the Latin American Integrated Market (MILA): Peru and Chile. We find that the cumulative abnormal returns and the absolute value of the cumulative abnormal trading are explained principally by the quarterly earnings surprises around the financial statements release date. We find that these effects are more pronounced in small firms, confirming that due to the lower level of pre disclosure information accounting numbers are the main source of information. Key words: Accounting Information, …

Beating Market Expectations, Analysts’ Forecasts Dispersion And The Pricing Of Credit Default Swaps, Mauricio A. Melgarejo

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of beating analysts’ forecasts and the impact of analysts’ forecast dispersion on the pricing of firms’ credit default swaps (CDSs). CDS premium is the compensation required by investors for bearing firms’ credit default risk. Sell-side analysts collect market, industry and firm information and provide important information in the form of stock recommendations, stock price targets and accounting number forecasts. For that reason, the information contained in their forecasts may provide additional information to investors to price CDSs. My results show that firms that beat analysts’ earnings and revenue forecasts, and …

Course-Integrated Information Literacy Instruction In Introduction To Accounting, Anne Kelly, Teresa Williams, Brad Matthies, J. B. Orris

Scholarship and Professional Work

Two groups of students, enrolled in Introduction to Accounting, volunteered to participate in a pedagogical study to assess course-integrated information literacy instruction. Only one group had received information literacy instruction in an earlier business course. Academic librarians provided three instruction sessions, and students completed a semester-long case to evaluate a company as a potential investment. The results suggest that information literacy skills can be learned for application in subsequent coursework. This research also provides some evidence of significantly greater improvement in information literacy and significantly higher perceptions of course-integrated instruction benefits by students who had not received the previous instruction.

The Impact Of Cultural Environment On Entry-Level Auditors’ Abilities To Perform Analytical Procedures, James F. Sander, Susan B. Hughes, Scott D. Higgs, Charles P. Cullinan

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

We focus on the impact of three of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism, on the results of analytical procedures conducted by entry-level auditors in Mexico and the U.S. Analytical procedures are ideal for this research as they require auditors to use professional judgment and appropriate levels of professional skepticism, abilities related to all three cultural characteristics. We find no other study investigating the impact of culture on the application of auditing procedures similar across the studied cultures.

We find cultural characteristics do not affect the participants’ abilities to predict income statement balances, but they may influence …

Critical Accounting Policy And Estimate Disclosures: Company Response To The Evolving Sec Guidance, Susan B. Hughes, James F. Sander, Jillian K. Snyder

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

In late 2001, soon after numerous financial reporting failures including the much publicized demise of Enron, the SEC began a series of initiatives to improve critical accounting policy (CAP) and critical accounting estimate disclosures included within the MD&A section of Form 10-K. The first announcement, in the form of cautionary guidance, was issued in December 2001. This was followed by a Proposed Rule in 2002, and additional disclosure guidance near the end of 2003. Combined, the guidance required companies to provide information that would help investors understand the impact of estimates, accounting policies and external factors on financial results. Through …

It's Just A Game, Or Is It? Real Money, Real Income, And Real Taxes In Virtual Worlds, William D. Terando, Brian E. Mennecke, Diane J. Janvin, William M. Dilla

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Virtual worlds like Second Life offer players opportunities to earn real-world income through their activities in the game. It will not be long before governments begin to establish policies and regulations regarding the income generated by players of these game environments. This paper examines the issue of taxes in virtual world games. Two alternative places for recognizing income could be established by regulators: 1) at the point when in-game transactions take place; or 2) when players convert game assets into real-world currency. We argue for realization of income, and therefore taxation, at the exchange. We expect that burdensome policies such …

A U.S. Manager's Guide To Differences Between Ifrs And U.S. Gaap, James F. Sander, Susan B. Hughes

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are now required for consolidated financial reports for all European Union exchange-listed companies. Officials estimated that for 2005, the initial year of EU adoption, 8,000 financial statements were prepared in accordance with IFRS for the first time. Other countries have also adopted IFRS or IFRS-equivalent financial reporting standards. IFRS differ from U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in many key areas. The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) are working on various convergence projects designed to reduce or eliminate differences between the two sets of reporting standards. But existing …

Valuation And Classification Of Company Issued Cash And Share-Puts, William D. Terando, Wayne Shaw, David Smith

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This paper examines whether investors’ valuations of cash and share-put warrants are influenced by their potential differential effect on firm solvency. It is motivated by the enactment of SFAS 150, which requires that all contingent put warrant obligations be classified as balance sheet liabilities regardless of put type. Consistent with the critics of SFAS150, we show that market participants differentially value cash and share-puts based on their solvency characteristics beyond the firm’s recorded assets and liabilities. Our results add to existing capital structure literature by suggesting that complex financial instruments (such as cash and share-puts) be reported separately from each …

How Groups Produce Higher-Quality Balanced Scorecards Than Individuals, S. B. Hughes, Craig B. Caldwell, Kathy A. Paulson Gjerde, Pam Rouse

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Many articles explain how to develop a balanced score card using groups, but the literature provides little insight about why groups are important. We gathered data from 12 groups involved in developing balanced score cards to determine how they use information suggested by their members. We found that the groups "filter" individual members' poor ideas and "carry through" their worthy ideas to the group score card--although not all poor ideas are filtered and not all good ideas are carried forward. We also found some evidence that groups create innovative ideas but to a lesser extent than filtering and carrying through …

The Relationship Between Pre-Employment Expectations, Experiences, And The Length Of Stay In Public Accounting, Margaret Y. Padgett, Kathy Paulson Gjerde, Susan B. Hughes, Carolyn J. Born

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This study examines the relationship between work-family conflict, employment expectations, and length of stay in public accounting. Length of stay is modeled as a function of demographic factors and job characteristics associated with work-family balance, measured in terms of the extent to which the employees' expectations matched their actual employment experiences. Results indicated that gender, the presence of children in the household, flexible schedules, and the presence of mentors were related to length of stay in public accounting.

Do Different Cost Systems Make A Difference?, S. B. Hughes, Kathy A. Paulson Gjerde

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Presents a survey of several U.S. manufacturing companies to determine whether managers within companies that use different cost systems believe the information provided by those systems differs. Reason for the decision of companies to continue to use other types of cost systems; Emphasis on activity-based costing; Association of variable costing with the theory of constraints literature.

The Effects Of Incentives And Audits On Transfer Price Negotiations In A Deflationary Context, Sakthi Mahenthiran

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This laboratory experiment investigates the effects of a performance incentive scheme and financial audit threats on transfer price negotiations. Three hypotheses are developed, based on a review of transfer pricing, budget-goal setting, incentive, and auditing literatures. Experimental data are gathered over multiple periods of negotiations from forty-eight students, and are analyzed using repeated measure ANOVA. The outcome measured is firm profits. The results show that bonus incentive scheme and audit threats have no effect on firm profits. However, the interaction between the performance based bonus incentive scheme and an audit threat is significant. With both management controls, bonus incentive and …

The Impact Of Group Selection On Student Performance And Satisfaction, Sakthi Mahenthiran, Pamela J. Rouse

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Investigates whether the performance and attitudes of students could be improved by giving them some control over the group selection process. Groups were formed either by randomly combining paired friends or by randomly assigning all students. Students completed a group exercise and a group case. The dependent variables were the project grades and student satisfaction. Student satisfaction was measured using a questionnaire. The results show that attitudes of students were more positive when they were allowed to choose a single friend in the group. The project grades were significantly higher when students were paired, and this result was true regardless …

The Effect Of Teaching Methods On Examination Performance And Attitudes In An Introductory Financial Accounting Course, Joseph Marcheggiani, Karel A. Updyke, James F. Sander

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This article describes a study in which a group-Socratic teaching method and an interactive lecture style were compared for their effect on students' examination performance in an introductory financial accounting course. The effect of teaching method on students' attitudes toward the accounting profession and the course was also analyzed. An ANOVA design was used to test for differences between experimental and control groups of undergraduate students. The results provide no evidence that either method of instruction results in significantly higher scores on examinations; nor was there any statistically significant difference in attitudes toward the accounting profession or the course.

Business Process Change And The Role Of The Management Accountant, Sakthi Mahenthiran, Russ Kershaw

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The role if the management accountant (MA) is undergoing a transition from that if a "number-crunching" preparer of financial statements and cost reports to that if a business partner. The MA is increasingly expected to analyze and explain the business implications if financial information and is becoming more involved in strategic planning, performance evaluation, and business process reengineering. Changes in the business environment have caused many companies to modify their strategic objectives and redesign their existing business processes. Firms can initiate and manage business process change (BPC) using different approaches. This article identifies the particular management accounting activities and skills …

Implementing Activity-Based Costing And Its Implications For A Service Firm In The Tme Share Exchange Industry, Sakthi Mahenthiran, Bruce D. Marshall

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This study reports on how an activity-based cost accounting (ABC) system was implemented in a service firm in the timeshare exchange industry. In addition, the study highlights the similarities of implementing ABC in a service firm and a manufacturing firm. An important contribution of this field study is to illustrate the separation of labor activities into those that are productive versus those that are not. Further, the study shows the importance of separately allocating the non-productive activities, which are traceable to the primary service lines from those that are not traceable to them. This is analogous to separating the product …

Assessing Higher-Level Thinking Skills, Federation Schools Of Accountancy Accounting Pedagogical Resource Series, C. Johnson, C. Baril, Sakthi Mahenthiran, M. Sarhan, G. Weinstein

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This resource catalog is one of a series prepared for the Pedagogical Resources Committee of the Federation of Schools of Accountancy. The aim of the resource catalog series is to provide background information for instructors interested in enhancing classroom pedagogy. Each resource catalog focuses on a single pedagogical issue or approach. The catalogs are authored by educators who are familiar with the issue or approach in both their classroom efforts and research writings.

Managing Costs Through Structural Re-Arrangement Of Hospitals: An Activity Based Management Perspective, W. Lee, Sakthi Mahenthiran

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

We examine a structural deficiency in the healthcare system that hinders implementation of a meaningful cost accounting system, and suggest an alternative organizational arragement that can facilitate introducing cost control mechanisms. We argue that hospitals need structural rearrangement so that cost-driving activities can be traced, and their costs allocated to responsibility centers. We suggest that this structural rearrangement is a precondition for implementing any meaningful activity-based cost management system. We also suggest a basic framework for value analysis of activities for healthcare providers, and discuss how this framework can be used as a vehicle for controlling diagnostic costs.

Accountants’ Liability To Third Parties For Negligent Misrepresentation: The Search For A New Limiting Principle, J. H. Leibman, Anne Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

Examines the liability of accountants in the United States to third parties for negligent misrepresentation.

Accounts Receivable Numbering For Indianapolis, James O. Anderson

Graduate Thesis Collection

Having presented the "basic numbering systems" the writer ettempts to draw on his department store background, research materials, and personal interviews with well informed business executives, in order to present meaningful facts in a logical sequence as to their application to the numbering of Indianapolis accounts.

In the final analysis account numbering in this thesis will apply specifically to the assignmentof an individual number to each customer's account in the Accounts Receivable Depertment of a department store or stores. As background information, however, the writer will draw extensively on the experiences of banks in order to establish a sound basis …

The Increase In Rates, Amounts, And Complexity Of The Federal Income Tax And The Importance Of Accounting, Frank R. Demmerly

Graduate Thesis Collection

The author felt that a short history of world income taxes including the earlier American eras would provide a strong foundation on which to build the development of the present Federal income tax structure. With this end in view, chapter one is devoted to this background. The rates of taxation and the amounts of income on which these rates are effective have, of course, varied from year to year. The problems arising in connection with these categories are discussed in the second chapter from the standpoint of the different returns filed. The third chapter presents the varied complex problems that …