Business Commons^™

The Moderating Effects Of The Ethicality On Both Morality And Religiosity Concerning The Likelihood Of Tax Evasion, Fred Coleman

Doctoral Dissertations

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines the estimate of the difference between the federal income tax due each year and the amount voluntarily and timely paid as the "tax gap". In 1981, the Service reports a tax gap of 81.5 billion dollars. In 2006, the most recent IRS data indicates that the tax gap has risen to 345 billion dollars which suggests that tax evasion in the United States remains a growing concern for the federal government. Although various economic and nonpecuniary theories have been developed to investigate tax noncompliance, Jackson and Milliron (1986) and Cruz et al. (2000) suggest …

An Empirical Examination Of The Effects Of Ethics, Disclosure, And Signal Theory On Disciplinary Actions Within The Accounting Profession, Benjamin Mcmillan

Doctoral Dissertations

There has been extensive research examining the relationship between the public mission of the accounting profession and the private interests of its professionals. All professions have been offered a special place within society due to the importance of the functions they perform as well as their stated public missions. In exchange, society delegates specific rights to the professions such as exclusivity of practice, self-discipline, and self-selection of their membership. Existing research suggests that the accounting profession's private interests have potentially encroached upon its public mission.

By using the Economic Theory of the Self Regulated Profession, Disclosure Theory, and Signal Theory, …

An Empirical Assessment Of Party Capability Theory In Federal Tax Cases, Ying Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

Party Capability Theory hypothesizes that parties with greater resources, usually "repeat players," fare better in the judicial system and are better able to influence legal changes than "one shotters." The theory also points out that "parties who have lawyers do better." The theory has become most influential since its publication and has been tested by several studies. However, its importance has not been addressed in the accounting academic arena.

The intent of this inquiry is to generalize Party Capability Theory to federal tax cases. The research sample consists of 1,010 trial court cases, 744 federal appellate court cases, and 29 …

An Investigation Of The Association Between Auditor Switching And Negative Information, Michael Morris Grayson

Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the premise that certain types of negative information are associated with auditor switches. A data set of 305 auditor switches from 1976 to 1994, extracted from the Compustat data base (limited subscription), was analyzed using tests of proportions and nonparametric sign tests. The data set consists of negative information extracted from the switching companies' income statements (i.e., net losses or extraordinary items) or calculated from the items extracted (i.e., net income adjusted to reverse the effect of extraordinary items).

The initial results, based on tests which assumed random movement of net income, did not support the notion …

Determinants Of Loan Losses In National Banks: Size, Regulation, And The Aicpa Model, Randy Marl Reed

Doctoral Dissertations

Because of recent failures, the AICPA Banking Committee has developed a normative model citing specific variables for auditors to use in bank audits. This research has examined that AICPA model.

In addition, the Auditing Principles Board has identified several areas of concern for auditing internal control structures. Research into size and regulation from other sources has indicated that both are significant modifiers of financial models. Regulations now require banks and holding companies of more than $500 million in assets to submit to an annual independent audit.

The primary purpose of this research was to determine whether the AICPA normative model …

Expectation-Performance Gap: Professional Liability Associated With Certain Auditor Behaviors, Sidney Paul Glandon

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is threefold: (i) to establish hypotheses relating financial liability to certain auditor behaviors discussed in the independence literature, (ii) to empirically validate that the presence of these behaviors will increase auditor financial liability over the normal audit situation, and (iii) attempt to explain the differences in subjects' perceptions for each of the behavioral scenarios studied.

A survey instrument was developed and administered to three groups of subjects: an impaneled jury, bankers, and CPAs. The instrument contained a vignette describing an annual audit situation where the company filed for bankruptcy subsequent to the issuance of the …

An Empirical Examination Of Materiality By Factor Analysis And Cognitive Mapping Of User And Preparer Groups, Treba Lilley Marsh

Doctoral Dissertations

This research primarily has attempted to determine if user-decision perspective (banker) and preparer perspective (CPA) differed in their materiality decisions and materiality cognitive processes. As its second objective the research has sought to determine the factors used in materiality judgments.

The researcher collected the data for the study while attending graduate and undergraduate classes of the American Banking Association's National Commercial Lending School and a training session of a Big Six accounting firm. Factor analysis of the data determined the underlying dimensions of materiality decisions. The accountants identified three relevant sets of factors: ratios, sensitive areas, and unrecorded items; the …

A Study Of The Influence Of Broadscope Managerial Accounting Systems On The Propensity To Create Slack, Gary Linn

Doctoral Dissertations

The goal of this study was to empirically examine the propensity to create budgetary slack. The research was designed to test the hypothesized moderating effect of broadscope managerial accounting system use on variables that are associated with the propensity to create budgetary slack, and it is the first known attempt to do so. The study also extends the previous research that has been conducted on budgetary slack.

After an extensive literature review was conducted on the variables studied, questionnaires were sent to 2,000 managers in the United States. The response rate was lower than expected at 105, but high enough …