Business Commons^™

Evaluating Flat Tax Theory: A Conceptual Framework, James N. Mohs

Accounting Faculty Publications

Tax receipts form one of the key tools of current macroeconomic fiscal policy. As governments are forced to increase spending levels satisfy their respective social, political or economic goals, they are consequently are forced to review new or additional sources of tax review. Government officials and political candidates theorize that new expensive programs can be paid for by increased taxes. A flat tax system has also been theorized to be an equitable solution to satisfy the increased tax revenue requirements. This paper reviews in general terms the current progressive tax system as well as a regressive flat tax system. This …

Using Cultural Mindsets To Reduce Cross‐National Auditor Judgment Differences, Aaron Saiewitz, Elaine Ying Wang

Accounting Faculty Publications

In a globalized audit environment, regulators and researchers have expressed concerns about inconsistent audit quality across nations, with a particular emphasis on Chinese audit quality. Prior research suggests Chinese audit quality may be lower than U.S. audit quality due to a weaker institutional environment (e.g., lower litigation and inspection risk) or cultural value differences (e.g., greater deference to authority). In this study, we propose that lower Chinese audit quality could also be due to Chinese auditors' different cognitive processing styles (i.e., cultural mindsets). We find U.S. auditors are more likely to engage in an analytic mindset approach, focusing on a …

Evaluating The Effect Of Corporate Tax Reductions On Value Chain Sourcing Decisions, James Mohs, Arthur Galloway

Accounting Faculty Publications

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the changes in the elements of the value change sensitivity model and identify if there has been a significant shift in the profitability of one country to another. Validating the work on the adjusted present value (APV) formula provided by Rainish, Mensz, and Mohs (2015), this paper analyzes how the new U.S. corporate tax rates will impact a company’s sourcing decision. Also, the value-added tax (VAT) is used in all other OECD countries, except the U.S, and therefore this will be part of the evaluation. The third variable that has a crucial …

Skin In The Game? Experimental Reactions To Prospective Reputational Damage By Corporate Personnel, Jesus R. Jimenez-Andrade, Timothy J. Fogarty

Accounting Faculty Publications

All organizations confront the possibility of scandal; however, the reputational threat caused by scandal is exacerbated when these events are not properly addressed. Since scandals also have the potential to adversely affect organizational personnel, dilemmas arise regarding traditional ideas of employee agency. In this study, we conduct an experiment manipulating the severity of the reputational threat and its financial consequences for decision-makers, using actual corporate officers and internal auditors. One key question is this: “Are corporate decision-makers’ responses to potential scandals affected by whether they, as incentivized individuals (via stock options), have “skin in the game?” Findings indicate that corporate …

Loan Purpose And Accounting Based Debt Covenants, Daniel Gyung Paik, Timothy L. Hamilton, Brandon Byunghwan Lee, Sung Wook Yoon

Accounting Faculty Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between the purpose of a loan and the type of debt covenants, separated into balance sheet-based and income statement-based covenants.

Design/methodology/approach

Using private loan deal observations obtained from the DealScan database over the period between 1996 and 2013, the authors classify the sample loan deals into three categories based on the purpose of borrowing, namely, borrowings for corporate daily operating purposes, financing purposes and acquisition and investing purposes. The authors conduct multinomial logistic regression analysis to test the relationship between the choice of financial ratios in a debt covenant …

The Velocity Of Risk, Sridhar Ramamoorti, James H. Wanserski, Richard Stover

Accounting Faculty Publications

Only a few decades ago, the onset of problematic risk events often was slow, and organizations handled the corresponding aftermath over a manageable time frame. Organizations armed with extensive public relations resources responded to most postevent crises after planning and analyzing thoughtful responses. Additionally, organizations carefully calculated their transparency with stakeholders regarding the event to manage its impact on the organization. Fast forward to today, and the pace of information is almost instantaneous. For example, when a popular U.S. fast food restaurant chain experienced an outbreak of E. coli-infected lettuce, its stock price decreased 44 percent within 90 days amid …

Business Education Of Ceo-Cfo And Annual Report Readability, Ling Tuo, Yu (Tony) Zhang, Zhenfeng Liu, Ruixue Du

Accounting Faculty Publications

Financial report readability captures the transparency and effectiveness of information communicated by firms’ executives. It’s interesting to investigate whether business knowledge, cognitive preferences, and professional ethics taught by a business education will shape the CEO/ CFO’s thinking in determining words, languages, paragraphs, and contents presented in financial reports when the self-interested CEO/CFO tends to influence the interpretation of financial information users. Using a sample of S&P 1500 CEOs and CFOs, we find that the CEO (CFO) with a business degree is associated with better (worse) readability of annual reports and the positive (negative) relation is strengthened (moderated) by internal corporate …