Digital Commons Network^™

Cpe Direct, January-March 2012, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

No abstract provided.

Common Fraud : A Guide To Thwarting The Top Ten Schemes, Glenn L. Helms

Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of The Fraudulent Factors Associated With Corporate Fraud, Ronald Zmuda

HIM 1990-2015

Between the years 1998 and 2002, the United States suffered a time in which several large companies engaged in fraudulent behavior which eroded investor confidence in the stock market and to some extent destabilized the economy. Audits, which were conducted to assess the validity and reliability of a company's financial statements, were not detecting the material misstatements in the statements. As a result, both the US Government and the accounting profession needed to come up with a way to prevent these immense frauds from occurring in the future. As a response to these large frauds, in 2002, the US Government …

How To Navigate Public Accounting Recruitment, Jill Heather Aoki

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For many accounting graduates, public accounting is an excellent place to start a career. However, recruitment at accounting firms is highly competitive. The majority of personnel are hired through internships, and competition for these positions is fierce. The process usually spans over multiple years and involves participating in leadership seminars, attending social events, and much more in addition to interviewing. Successful placement requires not only exceptional academic achievements but also strong relationships with personnel at the firm. One primary differentiator among the numerous public accounting firms is their people and culture. Other factors include local clients and specializations. Thus, candidates …

Board Reputation And Financial Reporting Quality, Dan Segal

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study uses a new measure of board reputation that is based on the market value of other companies on which board members serve, and examines whether board reputation has a causal effect on monitoring as reflected in financial statement reporting quality. A negative causal effect is expected if reputable directors are ineffective monitors because they are too busy or they choose to cater to management, whereas a positive causal effect is expected if reputable directors are more experienced and subject to significant reputation penalties in the case of a financial reporting failure. An alternative explanation is that reputation does …

Generational Differences Of Personal Values Of Business Students, Don E. Giacomino, Jill Brown, Michael D. Akers

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

This paper examines the values and value systems of business students from a private mid-western university using the Rokeach Value Survey and the Musser and Orke Typology of Personal Values. The findings of this study are compared with the results of studies in the latter part of the 1990’s and early 2000 in order to provide some insights regarding generational differences. There is evidence of changes in several individual variables during the past decade. For example, the value with the greatest change is National Security. Students in 2010 place more importance on this value than did the students in 1998. …

Sarbanes-Oxley And Corporate Greed, Adria L. Stigliano

Honors Scholar Theses

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is still a relatively new federal law set forth by the Securities Exchange Commission in 2002. Since its implementation, individuals have been wondering if Sarbanes-Oxley is effective enough and doing what it is meant to do – catch and prevent future accounting frauds and scandals. With the use of closer and stricter rules, the SOA is trying to prevent frauds with the use of a created Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Most importantly, however, it was created to protect the investors from self-interested managers, so as to not have repeats of the Enron, WorldCom and Tyco International …

Financial Reporting Fraud : A Practical Guide To Detection And Internal Control, Charles R. Lundelius

Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

No abstract provided.

Not-For-Profit Entities With Conforming Changes As Of March 1, 2011; Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Auditor Tenure And Audit Quality, Li Zheng Brooks

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

I propose that audit quality is likely to increase with audit firm tenure due to a Learning Effect and decrease with audit firm tenure due to a Bonding Effect. The net impact of these two countervailing forces over audit firm tenure dictates whether the relationship between audit firm tenure and audit quality is a concave, convex, or linear function of audit firm tenure. When the Bonding Effect dominates the Learning Effect in the later (earlier) years of tenure, then audit quality is a concave (convex) function of audit firm tenure. Adopting the quadratic model to empirically estimate the audit firm …

Auditor Reputation And Earnings Management: International Evidence From The Banking Industry, Kanagaretnam Kiridaran, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between auditor reputation and earnings management in banks using a sample of banks from 29 countries. In particular, we examine the implications of two aspects of auditor reputation, auditor type and auditor industry specialization, for earnings management in banks. We find that both auditor type and auditor industry specialization moderate benchmark-beating (loss-avoidance and just-meeting-or-beating prior year’s earnings) behavior in banks. In addition, we find that once auditor type and auditor industry specialization are included in the same tests, only auditor industry specialization has a significant impact on constraining benchmark-beating behavior. In separate tests related to income-increasing …

Accounting In Economic Recovery And Reform, September 30-October 2, 2010, Columbus, Ohio, Accounting Hall Of Fame, Academy Of Accounting Historians

Accounting Hall of Fame Brochures

No abstract provided.

Continuous Controls Monitoring Can Help Defer Fraud, Sridhar Ramamoorti, Joseph Dupree

Accounting Faculty Publications

The biannual survey of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) found that US organizations lose an estimated 7 percent of annual revenues to fraud. Based on corresponding United States GDP figures from the World Bank, this percentage indicates a staggering estimate of losses — around $994 billion — among U.S. organizations, despite increased emphasis on anti-fraud controls and recent legislation to combat fraud. As the survey suggests, almost every large and small organization is potentially susceptible to fraud risk, both internally from employee theft and corruption and externally by vendors and other third parties engaged in fraud against the …

Changing Legitimacy Narratives About Professional Ethics And Independence In The 1930'S Journal Of Accountancy, Diane Roberts

Accounting Historians Journal

The 1930s in the U.S. were marked by an economic crisis, governmental regulatory response, and a significant audit failure. This paper examines the profession's struggle for legitimacy during these times through its choice of narratives regarding professional ethics and independence as revealed in the national professional organization's monthly, the Journal of Accountancy. Initially ethics is a state-of-mind or narrative of character was used but transitioned to a more objectively determinable narrative of technique as the decade progressed. To counter governmental regulation, the profession attempted to shift the independence discourse away from regulation of accountants to regulation of client companies.

Not-For-Profit Entities With Conforming Changes As Of March 1, 2010; Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Not-For-Profit Organizations Committee

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Turning A Small Residential Farm Into A Non-Profit Educational Organization, Thomas John Anderson

Agribusiness

This study was undertaken to determine whether Felicity’s Farm could become a non-profit organization for education. In order to determine the feasibility of turning Felicity’s Farm into a non-profit organization, interviews were conducted and financial statements were collected. In addition, a Certificate of Incorporation was completed based on the interview and financial data. It was concluded that Felicity’s Farm could become a non-profit organization; however, better organization of finances, fund-raising and the use of volunteers was recommended.

Sarbanes Oxley Act Of 2002: Will It Be Effective In Preventing Another Enron Scandal?, Scott W. Eichar

Senior Honors Theses

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was introduced to Congress as a result of the deceit and fraud taking place at Enron in December of 2001. The three factors that led to the scandal were Enron’s weak internal control, misleading off-balance sheet entities, and conflicting interests between Enron’s employees and their chief auditor, Arthur Andersen. The provisions of SOX were established, in part, to strengthen internal control, require proper disclosure for special purpose entities, and eliminate conflicts of interests between a firm and its auditors. The purpose of this paper is to measure the effectiveness of these implementations to prevent …

Cue Usage In Financial Statement Fraud Risk Assessments: Effects Of Technical Knowledge And Decision Aid Use, Jean Lin Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper investigates the effects of technical knowledge and decision aid use on financial statement fraud risk assessments made by directors and students. More extreme fraud risk assessments are made when participants identify and process larger (smaller) numbers of diagnostic (non-diagnostic) factors, with technical knowledge driving diagnostic factor identification. Significant decision aid-technical knowledge effects are also found; decision aid use has a detrimental effect on high-knowledge directors while improving performance in inexperienced, low-knowledge students. These results suggest that although decision aids can afford gains in performance in inexperienced users, they can have unintended and/or paradoxical behavioural effects on experienced users.

Qualitative Information In Annual Reports & The Detection Of Corporate Fraud : A Natural Language Processing Perspective, Sunita Goel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

High profile cases of fraudulent financial reporting such as those that occurred at Enron and WorldCom have shaken public confidence in the U.S. financial reporting process and have raised serious concerns about the roles of auditors, regulators, and analysts in financial reporting. In order to address these concerns and restore public confidence, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 was enacted. However, SOX has not lived up to its promise. Numerous cases of fraudulent financial reporting have surfaced in the post-SOX era. So far, the major thrust of research has been on examining fraud that has already been discovered. This dissertation …

Employee Benefit Plans Industry Developments - 2009; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Practicing Cpa, Vol. 32 No. 3, March/April 2008, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Focus, Vol. 4 No. 2, March/April 2008, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Business Valuation And Forensic & Litigation Services Section

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Earnings Management And Its Implications, Michael D. Akers, Don E. Giacomino, Jodi L. Gissel

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

In the wake of continuing, highly publicized financial frauds and failures, the accounting profession has placed renewed emphasis on issues related to earnings management and earnings quality. Staff Accounting Bulletin 101, Revenue Recognition in Financial Statements, which was issued in December 1999 in response to the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission report, illustrates the importance of earnings to the SEC. The SEC and the public are demanding greater assurance about the quality of earnings. Notwithstanding the grave threat that abusive earnings-management practices pose to the reliability and accuracy of financial statements, the accounting profession may be reluctant …

Fraud: The Human Factor, Sridhar Ramamoorti, William Olsen

Accounting Faculty Publications

Eighty percent of respondents to a National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) survey of public company audit committees felt that failure resulting from poor risk management couldn't happen to them. However, 50 percent thought it could happen to other companies.

This feeling of relative "invincibility" is similar to the statistically impossible "Lake Wobegon" effect--where "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average." Could this Lake Wobegon effect--which results from the human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others--extend to an organization's assessment of its vulnerability to fraud …

Focus, Vol. 3 No. 6, November/December 2007, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Business Valuation And Forensic & Litigation Services Section

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Cpa Expert 2007 Spring, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Cpa Expert 2007 Summer, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants

Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Finance And Accounting Outsourcing: Three Studies Related To The Ethical And Economic Dimensions Of Accounting Outsourcing, Renu V. Desai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates the economic and ethical considerations underlying the outsourcing of professional services such as finance and accounting. The dissertation is comprised of three separate, but related studies. The first study explores the adequacy of the disclosure rules recommended in the revised ethics rulings regarding disclosure of outsourcing relationships and the resulting ethical and economic repercussions for both, the AICPA members and their clients. The second study analyzes the disclosure rules recommended in the AICPA ethics rulings regarding disclosure of outsourcing relationships from an ethical standpoint. The third study adopts the perspective of the third party service provider. The …

The Ethics Of Managing Short-Term Earnings: Business Managers And Business Students Rate Earnings Management Practices – Implications For Academia, Don E. Giacomino, Jodi L. Gissel, Michael D. Akers

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

In 1990, Bruns and Merchant surveyed the readership of the Harvard Business Review (HBR). Their survey asked HBR readers to rate the acceptability of earnings management practices. Prior to that study, researchers and accounting practitioners paid little attention to the morality of short-term earnings management. However, in the wake of highly publicized financial frauds and failures, the profession and academic journals have emphasized the importance of the concepts of earnings quality and earnings management. The Bruns and Merchant survey provided 13 earnings management situations and asked the HBR readers to rate the acceptability of those practices. In this study, we …

Focus, Vol. 2 No. 6, October/November/December 2006, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Business Valuation And Forensic & Litigation Services Section

Newsletters

No abstract provided.