Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Accounting Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Series

2021

Articles 1 - 30 of 48

Full-Text Articles in Accounting

The Impact Of The Ifrs 9 Expected Loss Approach On Accounting Conservatism, Clarence Goh, Chu Yeong Lim, Kevin Ow Yong Dec 2021

The Impact Of The Ifrs 9 Expected Loss Approach On Accounting Conservatism, Clarence Goh, Chu Yeong Lim, Kevin Ow Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using an experimental setting, this paper examines the impact of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS 9) expected credit loss (ECL) approach on accounting conservatism. The ECL approach enables banks to incorporate loan loss provisions (LLP) on a timelier basis and help bank regulators anticipate weaknesses in banks’ loan portfolios. Conversely, the ECL model could be more susceptible to managerial discretion. More conservative bank managers might make excessivecredit provisions. Our findings show that high conservatism is positively associated with higher levels of LLP. In addition, the effect of accounting conservatism is contingent upon the type of loan loss model. We …


Beyond Shareholder Value? Why Firms Voluntarily Disclose Support For Black Lives Matter, A. J. Chen, Patricia M. Dechow, Samuel T. Tan Dec 2021

Beyond Shareholder Value? Why Firms Voluntarily Disclose Support For Black Lives Matter, A. J. Chen, Patricia M. Dechow, Samuel T. Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate why firms voluntarily disclose support for the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM firms) even though these disclosures have little impact on shareholder value. We examine two competing explanations: that managers are acting in the interests of a broad set of stakeholders, or that they are engaging in “woke-washing.” Our evidence supports the stakeholder perspective since we find that BLM firms have more inclusive cultures on multiple dimensions – from their board members, to employees, to the rights of shareholders, and to the compensation structure of top executives. Furthermore, BLM firms face less risk in speaking out since they …


Executive Tweets, Richard M.Crowley, Wenli Huang, Hai Lu Dec 2021

Executive Tweets, Richard M.Crowley, Wenli Huang, Hai Lu

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We explore the tweeting behavior of S&P 1500 firms’ executives (CEOs and CFOs) and its market consequences during the period of 2011 to 2018. We document that executives tweet financial information related to their firms and time these tweets to firms’ major events, and that investors respond to executive tweets in addition to firm tweets. Using the latest machine learning techniques, we develop an innovative construct measuring the content similarity between executive tweets and firm tweets. We use this measure to disentangle whether the market reaction comes from new information or trust. We show evidence consistent with the view that …


Bundled Earnings Guidance And Analysts' Forecast Revisions, Charles Hsu, Rencheng Wang Dec 2021

Bundled Earnings Guidance And Analysts' Forecast Revisions, Charles Hsu, Rencheng Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Bundling managerial earnings guidance with quarterly earnings announcements (EAs) has become an increasingly common practice. This study investigates the impact of bundled guidance on analysts' forecast revisions. Our findings indicate that analysts respond more to bundled guidance than non-bundled guidance. This effect increases with analysts' time pressure and cognitive constraints around the EA. Analysts' revisions also incorporate more of the bundled management guidance when accompanied by additional information, such as conference calls. We further find that analysts revise their forecasts more quickly following bundled guidance than non-bundled guidance. Together, these findings are consistent with the notion that analysts place more …


Transforming Businesses With E-Commerce Intelligence, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan Nov 2021

Transforming Businesses With E-Commerce Intelligence, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

2020 had been an extraordinary year as the Covid-19 pandemic struck almost all countries in the world and created an extraordinary impact on businesses worldwide. Singapore and many other Southeast Asian countries were not spared and had to implement lockdowns swiftly. To cope with physical store closures and the increased volume of online transactions, most businesses tried to revamp their business models and set up online stores to capitalise on the rise of the e-commerce wave. With the growing trend of online transactions, it has become imperative for companies operating in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry to track …


Do Firms Respond To Peer Disclosures? Evidence From Clinical Trial Disclosures, Vedran Capkun, Yun Lou, Clemens A. Otto, Yin Wang Nov 2021

Do Firms Respond To Peer Disclosures? Evidence From Clinical Trial Disclosures, Vedran Capkun, Yun Lou, Clemens A. Otto, Yin Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine whether a firm’s decision to disclose non-financial proprietary information depends on peer disclosures of similar information. Using a sample of 5,035 unique clinical trials by U.S. pharmaceutical firms over the 2007-2014 period, we find that the firm is less likely to disclose its own clinical trial results if peers have published clinical trial results pertaining to the same medical condition. Conditional on disclosing clinical trial results, the firm is also less likely to disclose the trial results on time when peers have disclosed their clinical trial results. Our cross-sectional tests suggest that proprietary costs of disclosure play an …


Accounting For A Hopeful World, Themin Suwardy Nov 2021

Accounting For A Hopeful World, Themin Suwardy

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In a commentary, SMU Associate Provost for Postgraduate Professional Education and Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) Themin Suwardy noted that environmental reporting has become more common in the last 10 years and that companies are embracing sustainability reporting despite the challenging myriad of seemingly different models, frameworks and regulations. He opined that the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards to be issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will enable companies to provide comprehensive sustainability information for the global financial markets. He urged accounting professionals to embrace the development wholeheartedly and to help organisations do and report good.


Data Analytics And Audit Quality, Ru Gao, Sterling Huang, Rencheng Wang Nov 2021

Data Analytics And Audit Quality, Ru Gao, Sterling Huang, Rencheng Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the impact of data analytics on audit quality. Using hand-collected information on data analytics skills of employees of audit firms, we find that human capital investment in data analytics improves audit quality. The analytics capability of both frontline and back-office employees contributes to audit quality. The effect is more pronounced for audit clients with complex business operations, for clients with complicated accounting estimates, and for clients that are more digitalized. Taken together, our findings suggest that an audit office’s analytics capability represents an important office attribute that can affect audit quality.


Adopting A Risk-Intelligent Approach To Digital Transformation: Four Traits Of Digitally Mature Organisations, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Yuanto Kusnadi, Seah Gek Choo, Cheryl Lim Oct 2021

Adopting A Risk-Intelligent Approach To Digital Transformation: Four Traits Of Digitally Mature Organisations, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Yuanto Kusnadi, Seah Gek Choo, Cheryl Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Our objective is to understand how digitally mature organisations are managing the GRC aspects of their digital transformation programmes, and identify any traits or behaviours that could inform the development of best practices.


Non-Gaap Earnings And Stock Price Crash Risk, Charles Hsu, Rencheng Wang, Benjamin C. Whipple Oct 2021

Non-Gaap Earnings And Stock Price Crash Risk, Charles Hsu, Rencheng Wang, Benjamin C. Whipple

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate whether non-GAAP earnings disclosures increase stock price crash risk. Consistent with non-GAAP disclosures allowing managers to inflate investors’ perceptions about firm performance, our results indicate that income increasing non-GAAP reporting increases crash risk. We also find that managers can use non-GAAP reporting as a substitute for earnings management to withhold bad news from investors (the traditional explanation for crashes). Finally, we find a positive association between non-GAAP reporting and the likelihood of subsequent events that can trigger a crash. Overall, our evidence is consistent with some non-GAAP disclosures exposing investors to risks of large and sudden price declines.


Local Political Corruption And M&As, Chun Liu, Yang Chen, Shanmin Li, Liang Sun, Mengjie Yang Oct 2021

Local Political Corruption And M&As, Chun Liu, Yang Chen, Shanmin Li, Liang Sun, Mengjie Yang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between local political corruption and firms' cross-province M&As using provincial-level data on corruption in China. The results show that firms in more corrupt regions are less likely to engage in cross-province M&As. Further analyses reveal that the effects of local corruption on the probability of cross-province M&As are stronger when corrupt officers have greater impeding benefits or lower impeding costs. Meanwhile, Both ex-ante intervention and ex post punishment are important channels through which corrupt officers hinder firms' cross province M&As. Moreover, informal institutions, such as social capital and informal networks can help to alleviate the negative …


What Are The Four Traits Of Digitally Mature Organizations?, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gek Choo Shirlena Tan Oct 2021

What Are The Four Traits Of Digitally Mature Organizations?, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gek Choo Shirlena Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

A study conducted by Deloitte Southeast Asia and the Singapore Management University said there are four traits that could identify digitally mature organisations based on how they manage the governance, risk, and compliance aspects of digital transformation.


Robust And Ethical Data Governance Critical To Growth In Digital Age, Themin Suwardy, Melvin Yong Sep 2021

Robust And Ethical Data Governance Critical To Growth In Digital Age, Themin Suwardy, Melvin Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

With increasing digitalisation, and companies collecting an ever-increasing amount of their customer and business data, organisations have to become more accountable to stakeholders such as regulators, customers and investors on the issue of data. Observers say expectations are also increasing, with incidents of data breaches capturing much media attention. Just as corporate governance encompasses more than just compliance, experts say data governance is more than just data protection and security but also about creating value.


Creating Exceptional Customer Experience With Data, Themin Suwardy, Melvin Yong Sep 2021

Creating Exceptional Customer Experience With Data, Themin Suwardy, Melvin Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In a joint commentary, SMU Associate Provost for Postgraduate Professional Education and Associate Professor of Accounting (Practice) Themin Suwardy and Melvin Yong, Singapore Country Head of CPA Australia, discussed how exceptional customer services can be created with data. They opined that this involves employing technology and analytical skills, with agile teams working across functional lines. SMU Associate Dean of the School of Computing and Information Systems and Professor of Information Systems (Education) Michelle Cheong said, “Sustainable competitive advantage can come from improvements in their product and service offerings which can be implemented quickly, cannot be imitated easily, and can bring …


Trust In Fair Value Accounting: Evidence From The Field, Clarence Goh, Chu Yeong Lim, Jeffery Ng, Gary Pan, Kevin Ow Yong Sep 2021

Trust In Fair Value Accounting: Evidence From The Field, Clarence Goh, Chu Yeong Lim, Jeffery Ng, Gary Pan, Kevin Ow Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We survey stakeholders in the financial reporting process to examine trust in fair value accounting. Although respondents demonstrate high confidence in financial statements, they believe that fair value accounting decreases trust in financial reporting and that preparing fair value numbers is costly but beneficial. They also strongly believe in the Conceptual Framework underlying standard setting. Using multivariate regression analyses, we find that perceiving fair value accounting as beneficial is positively associated with trust in it, consistent with the theory of reasoned action that people engage in behavior (e.g., trust) based on expected positive outcomes of that behavior. We find that …


Essence Of Partnership Management In Project-Based Learning: Insights From A University’S Global Project Programme, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Shankararaman, Venky, Kevin Koh Sep 2021

Essence Of Partnership Management In Project-Based Learning: Insights From A University’S Global Project Programme, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Shankararaman, Venky, Kevin Koh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Universities today are embracing teaching pedagogy of project-based learning (PBL) through collaboration with industry. PBL allows students to learn theory in the classroom, then apply what they have learned in the field, solving a wide array of business or societal challenges facing organizations, while at the same time, solidifying their own knowledge. While there are many benefits of such academic-industry partnership, there are also challenges that if not addressed, may have serious consequences. This study aims to develop a framework that highlights the essence of partnership management in a PBL setting and validate the framework by conducting a focus group …


The Impact Of Ceo/Cfo Outside Directorships On Auditor Selection And Audit Quality, Jaeyoon Yu, Byungjin Kwak, Myung Seok Park, Yoonseok Zang Aug 2021

The Impact Of Ceo/Cfo Outside Directorships On Auditor Selection And Audit Quality, Jaeyoon Yu, Byungjin Kwak, Myung Seok Park, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine whether outside directorships of chief executive officer/chief financial officer (CEO/CFO) and resulting network ties to auditors affect auditor selection decisions and subsequent audit quality. The network ties arise when the CEO/CFO of a firm (home firm) serves as an outside director of another firm that hires an auditor (connected auditor). Using a sample of firms that switch auditors in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley Act period, we find that home firms are more likely to appoint connected auditors. We also find that home firms hiring connected auditors experience a significant decline in subsequent audit quality, compared to those hiring …


Public Audit Oversight And The Originate-To-Distribute Model, Daniel Aobdia, Yiwei Dou, Jungbae Kim Aug 2021

Public Audit Oversight And The Originate-To-Distribute Model, Daniel Aobdia, Yiwei Dou, Jungbae Kim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The originate-to-distribute (OTD) model, in which the originators of mortgages sell or securitize the mortgages to third parties, likely contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Auditors were blamed for permitting clients to understate the risks of the model in their financial reports, fostering undisciplined lending. We investigate whether public audit oversight influences OTD lending by promoting more vigilant audits of the financial reports of originators. Using a difference-in-differences design prior to the financial crisis, we find reduced OTD lending by banks after the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) criticizes their auditors’ audits of financial reports regarding OTD transactions. The …


Future-Ready Accountant: Upskilling And Life-Long Learning In The Age Of Digital Transformation, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan Jul 2021

Future-Ready Accountant: Upskilling And Life-Long Learning In The Age Of Digital Transformation, Yuanto Kusnadi, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Upskilling and life-long learning are two key phrases that Education Minister Lawrence Wong highlighted in his speech at the Straits Times Education Forum 2021. The rapid emergence of digital technologies has disrupted many industries, including accountancy sector. While accounting jobs will continue to exist and grow, the way that accounting work is carried out is no longer the same. Accounting functions are increasingly relying on digital technologies to enable their work. For instance, data analytics is deployed in audit and forensics to detect irregular patterns in accounting transaction. Machine learning algorithms are used to sharpen forecasting models to predict sales …


Embracing Digital Transformation In Accounting And Finance, Poh Sun Seow, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Melvin Yong, Joanna Chek Jul 2021

Embracing Digital Transformation In Accounting And Finance, Poh Sun Seow, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Melvin Yong, Joanna Chek

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Digital transformation involves the integration of digital technologies and business processes. Recent developments in digital technologies have provided organisations with the tools to embark on digital transformation encompassing a wide range of business processes and activities. Organisations that can leverage on technology to digitally transform themselves stand to put themselves at a significant competitive advantage relative to their competitors.


Repatriation Taxes, Internal Agency Conflicts, And Subsidiary-Level Investment Efficiency, Harald J. Amberger, Kevin S. Markle, Daniel M. P. Samuel Jul 2021

Repatriation Taxes, Internal Agency Conflicts, And Subsidiary-Level Investment Efficiency, Harald J. Amberger, Kevin S. Markle, Daniel M. P. Samuel

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a global sample of multinational corporations (MNCs) and their foreign subsidiaries, we find that repatriation taxes impair subsidiary-level investment efficiency. Consistent with internal agency conflicts between the central management of the MNC and the manager of the foreign subsidiary being the driver, we show that this effect is concentrated in subsidiaries with high information asymmetry and in subsidiaries that are weakly monitored. Quasi-natural experiments in the U.K. and Japan establish a causal relationship for our findings and suggest that a repeal of repatriation taxes increases subsidiary-level investment efficiency while reducing the level of investment. Our paper provides timely empirical …


Digital Innovation: A Catalyst And Enabler Of Achieving Business Sustainability, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Shankararaman, Venky Jul 2021

Digital Innovation: A Catalyst And Enabler Of Achieving Business Sustainability, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Shankararaman, Venky

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Today, many companies are actively incorporating sustainability principles into their business strategies. This movement is likely to have resulted from an ongoing shift in the demands and behaviours of customers, employees, partners, governments, investors and other stakeholders that expect companies to act with integrity and in a way that benefits wider society. The emphasis on achieving sustainability goals has led to increasing adoption of “triple bottom line”, which suggests that companies ought to pay attention to more than just the bottom-line, but also measure their environmental and societal impacts that may help to achieve long-term business growth. Typically, companies with …


Terrorist Attacks, Managerial Sentiment, And Corporate Disclosures, Wen Chen, Haibin Wu, Liandong Zhang Jul 2021

Terrorist Attacks, Managerial Sentiment, And Corporate Disclosures, Wen Chen, Haibin Wu, Liandong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates the effect of managerial sentiment on corporate disclosure decisions. Using terrorist attacks in the United States as adverse shocks to managerial sentiment, we find that firms located in the metropolitan areas attacked issue more negatively biased earnings forecasts. The effect is stronger for firms with higher operating uncertainty and firms with younger, inexperienced, or less confident executives and it is weaker for firms located in states with increasing violent crime rates. A potential alternative explanation is that managers could strategically bias earnings forecasts downward and attribute the poor performance to terrorist attacks. To address this issue, we …


Managers' Pay Duration And Voluntary Disclosures, Qiang Cheng, Young Jun Cho, Jae B. Kim Jul 2021

Managers' Pay Duration And Voluntary Disclosures, Qiang Cheng, Young Jun Cho, Jae B. Kim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Given the adverse effect on their welfare, managers are reluctant to disclose bad news in a timely fashion. We examine the effect of managers' pay duration on firms' voluntary disclosures of bad news. Pay duration refers to the average period that it takes for managers' annual compensation to vest. We hypothesize and find that pay durations can incentivize managers to provide more bad news earnings forecasts. This result holds after controlling for the endogeneity of pay duration. In addition, we find that the effect of pay duration is more pronounced for firms with weaker governance and with poorer information environments, …


Preparing Accountants Of The Future: A Programme In Accounting Data And Analytics, Poh Sun Seow, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan Jul 2021

Preparing Accountants Of The Future: A Programme In Accounting Data And Analytics, Poh Sun Seow, Clarence Goh, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The accounting profession is rapidly evolving due to technological innovations. Technologies such as the Internet of things, smart sensors, cloud computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence are combining to disrupt the way that businesses operate. It is predicted that, over the next decade, information technology (IT) will significantly transform the accounting profession.


Generalist Versus Specialist Ceos And Acquisitions: Two-Sided Matching And The Impact Of Ceo Characteristics On Firm Outcomes, Guoli Chen, Sterling Huang, Philipp Meyer-Doyle Jun 2021

Generalist Versus Specialist Ceos And Acquisitions: Two-Sided Matching And The Impact Of Ceo Characteristics On Firm Outcomes, Guoli Chen, Sterling Huang, Philipp Meyer-Doyle

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Research Summary: To address endogeneity concerns stemming from firm-CEO matching, we deploy a two-sided matching model that identifies the complementarities arising from the CEO-firm match and subsequently account for these complementarities in empirical tests. Applying this approach, we examine how the nature of CEOs' human capital affects the acquisition behavior and performance of firms. We find that generalist CEOs (CEOs with a broader set of knowledge and skills) are more likely to engage in unrelated acquisitions than specialist CEOs (CEOs with a narrower but deeper set of knowledge and skills). We also find that the fit between the nature of …


Labor Market Mobility And Expectation Management: Evidence From Enforceability Of Noncompete Provisions, Michael Tang, Rencheng Wang, Yi Zhou Jun 2021

Labor Market Mobility And Expectation Management: Evidence From Enforceability Of Noncompete Provisions, Michael Tang, Rencheng Wang, Yi Zhou

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines how managers' use of expectation management is affected by their labor market mobility, which we measure by the enforceability of noncompete provisions in their employment contracts. Exploiting quasinatural experiments, our difference-in-differences analyses provide new causal insights to the growing literature on how managers' career concerns affect their disclosure choices. Consistent with a less mobile labor market imposing more pressure on managers to achieve earnings expectations, we predict and find that managers in US states that tightened enforcement of noncompete provisions are more likely to manage analyst expectations downward. We also find that downward expectation management is used …


Analyst Teams, Bingxu Fang, Ole-Kristian Hope Jun 2021

Analyst Teams, Bingxu Fang, Ole-Kristian Hope

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines the impact of teamwork on sell-side analysts’ performance. Using a hand-collected sample of over 50,000 analyst research reports, we find that analyst teams issue more than 70% of annual earnings forecasts. In contrast, most prior research implicitly assumes that forecasts are issued by individual analysts. We document that analyst teams generate more accurate earnings forecasts than individual analysts and that the stock market reacts more strongly to forecast revisions issued by teams. Analyst teams also cover more firms, issue earnings forecasts more frequently, and issue less stale forecasts. Analysts working in teams are more likely to be …


Using Excel To Teach Simulation For Management Accounting, Clarence Goh, Poh Sun Seow, Gary Pan Jun 2021

Using Excel To Teach Simulation For Management Accounting, Clarence Goh, Poh Sun Seow, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this article, we introduce an Excel exercise on simulation that can be implemented in a management accounting class. Specifically, we introduce a three phase implementation process where instructors (i) give the class an introduction to simulation, (ii) introduce students to a four-step process used in conducting analysis using simulation in Excel, and (iii) introduce a simulation problem focused on a specific area of management accounting (revenue projection) and guide students in completing the simulation analysis in Excel. By highlighting how simulation models can be built using Excel and used to solve a management accounting problem, our article identifies an …


The Effects Of Tax Avoidance News On Employee Perceptions Of Managers And Firms: Evidence From Glassdoor.Com Ratings, Yoojin Lee, Shaphan Ng, Terry Shevlin, Aruhn Venkat May 2021

The Effects Of Tax Avoidance News On Employee Perceptions Of Managers And Firms: Evidence From Glassdoor.Com Ratings, Yoojin Lee, Shaphan Ng, Terry Shevlin, Aruhn Venkat

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine whether employee perceptions of managers and firms fall following tax avoidance news. Using S&P 500 firms and generalized difference-in-differences specifications, we find that tax avoidance news negatively affects employee perceptions of managers and firms. In cross-sectional tests, we find that (1) firms and managers in consumer-facing industries suffer larger employee-related perception changes from tax avoidance news compared to other firms, and (2) well-performing firms and their managers face smaller perception changes than other firms and managers. Overall, our results are consistent with tax avoidance news negatively affecting employee perceptions of managers and firms.