Demystifying Team Creation, Kelly G. Atkins, Michelle S. Freeman

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Sales Skill Development For Next Generation Of Accounting Professionals: From Accountant To Partner, Scott Cohen, Dena Breece, Michael Rodriguez, Chelsea Schrader

Atlantic Marketing Journal

With the exodus of accounting professionals due to retirement, firms are challenged to replace skilled employees with a newer generation, Millenials and Generation Z (CPA Practice Advisor, 2024). To bridge the gap, the authors explore how soft skills (communication and relationship management) are necessary for newer accounting professionals to not only fill the talent gap but also help them be promoted to senior-level positions in their firms. Using Human Capital Theory (HCT) as our foundation, a content analysis using responses from 30 accounting leaders found unique skills such as communication, presentation, and relationship building are crucial in the development of …

Driving Marketing Efficiency In The Age Of Big Data: Analysis Of Subprime Automotive Borrowers, Edwin Baidoo, Ryan Matthews, Frances Ann Stott, F. Stuart Wells

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Big Data methodologies are applied to understand subprime borrowers in the U.S. automobile space. The focus on the automobile market is essential as this subsegment is responsible for directly and indirectly employing over one million people and creating payrolls in excess of $100 billion annually in the U.S. It is found in this article that if a subprime borrower is a homeowner, the probability of repaying their auto loan increases by almost 4%. However, if the borrower is renting, the likelihood of repaying their auto loan increases by nearly 1.4%. Applying Big Data in making subprime auto loans can add …

Impact Of Regulatory Interventions And Transitions On Broker-Dealer Audit Quality, Darlene Adkins

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

ABSTRACT

IMPACT OF REGULATORY INTERVENTIONS AND TRANSITIONS ON BROKER-DEALER AUDIT QUALITY

By

Darlene A. Adkins

The purpose of this study is to examine the audit quality of public U.S. broker-dealer (BD) entities after the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (Dodd-Frank Act). Specifically, this study investigates whether there are associations between BD regulatory efforts to protect capital market investors and auditor decision-making during BD audit engagements that occurred between fiscal years 2011 and 2018. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) BD audit inspection reports and the enforcement actions lodged against entities provide support …

The Effects Of Successor Ceo’S Origin On Auditors’ Client Risk Assessment And Continuance Decisions Following A Corporate Scandal, Nelson Mlotshwa

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

This study examines the effects of chief executive officer (CEO) succession and successor origin on auditors’ client risk assessment, continuance, and audit effort decisions following a major scandal in a client firm. 83 experienced audit professionals drawn from U.S. public accounting firms participated in a 2 x 2 experiment with the CEO succession triggering event (clients’ ethical or operational failure) and successor-CEO origin (insider/outsider) manipulated randomly between subjects. The study examined the effects of these variables on auditors’ judgments when making client risk assessment, continuance, and audit effort decisions. Results indicate that auditors assess higher risk of material misstatements (main …

Hedge Fund Ownership And Auditor-Client Contracting In U.S. Firms, Sarah Feltus

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Hedge funds have grown rapidly in the last two decades, from managing assets worth approximately $600 billion in 2003 to over $3 trillion in 2017. As hedge funds themselves have grown, so too have concerns about their involvement with publicly traded companies and their effect on various stakeholders and the economy. Although Critics claim that hedge fund activism creates a short-term focus, shifting funds out of expansion and research and development and into distributions to shareholders, proponents argue that hedge fund activism helps boards overcome management incompetence and counter passive investors. Academic research is mixed on the long-term effects of …

Auditing Under The Influence: The Role Of Client Gender In Audit Negotiations, Jennifer Hamrick

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Client characteristics, one antecedent to auditor judgments (Hurtt, et al. 2013), have considerable influence on auditor-client negotiations of proposed audit adjustments, and ultimately audit quality. Client gender is one specific characteristic that has received recent attention for its influence on financial statement conservatism and audit fees. However, there is little empirical evidence on the influence of client gender on auditor-client negotiation outcomes. Client gender is expected to influence auditor judgments such that auditors are expected to propose lower audit adjustments to male (vs. female) clients due to the lower source credibility typically assigned to females (Kray, Galinsky, & Thompson, 2002; …

Big 4 Office Personnel And Audit Quality, Jacob Gatlin

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Because U.S. Big 4 audit quality is inconsistent between office locations within the same firm, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) has maintained a standing Audit Quality Indicator Project designed to assist academics, practitioners, and its own inspection teams in identifying specific areas in which high audit quality may fail to be achieved. While many of the PCAOB audit quality indicators have been examined in prior research, information regarding the personnel comprising each office audit department has been difficult to glean because personnel data is not publicly disclosed by the Big 4.

This study examines certain personnel inputs and …

The Impact Of Internal Auditors' Professional And Social Affiliations On Financial Reporting Quality, Reanna Berry

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

The internal audit function is a critical component of strong corporate governance, along with firm management, the audit committee, and the external auditor (Hermanson & Rittenberg, 2003; Gramling, Maletta, Schneider, & Church, 2004). A potential threat to this strong corporate governance is professional and social affiliations. Accordingly, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX, 2002) limits some professional affiliations among management, the audit committee, and the external auditor (S206; S301), but only provides one limitation related to the internal auditor, which is that an external auditor cannot simultaneously provide internal audit consulting services to its audit client (S201(a)). Professional and social affiliations among …

The Impact Of Audit Engagement Partner Disclosure On Audit Outcomes In The United States, J. Alan Bell

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE IMPACT OF AUDIT ENGAGEMENT PARTNER DISCLOSURE ON AUDIT OUTCOMES IN THE UNITED STATES

by

James Alan Bell

This study is motivated by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) mandate requiring the public disclosure of the audit engagement partner’s identity. Prior to the ruling, the audit engagement partner (AEP) was known only to the company’s management, audit committee, audit firm, and regulators. The PCAOB maintains that disclosure of the AEP will increase the partner’s sense of accountability; and increase transparency in the audit process; leading to improved audit quality; and improved financial reporting quality; thereby improving the credibility …

Global Educational Tours And Business Simulations: Challenges And Benefits Of Experiential Learning In Executive Mba Programs, Uday S. Tate, Deepak Subedi, Suneel Maheshwari

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

The Examiniation Of Entrepreneurial Investment Tax Credits: Angel Vs. Crowdfunding Investing, Laura Barthel

PhD in Business Administration Dissertations

Equity-investment credits are prevalent in the United States and other countries (Bell and Woodmansee, 2016), yet little evidence exists about the effectiveness of these credits at incentivizing individuals to invest. The intent of these credits is to spur entrepreneurial activity and in turn economic development (Acs, Asterbro, Audretsch, and Robinson, 2016; Bell, Wilbanks, and Hendon, 2013; Erken, Donselaar, and Thurik, 2016). The current study experimentally tests the influence of a tax credit on an individual’s likelihood to invest in startups across two risk settings, which parallel Angel and Crowdfunding investing methods.

The study finds an equity-investment tax credit is effective …

Investigating The Impact Of Publicly Announced Information Security Breaches On Corporate Risk Factor Disclosure Tendencies, Sandra J. Cereola, Joanna Dynowska

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

As the reported number of data breaches increase and senators push for more disclosure regulation, the SEC staff issued a guidance in 2011 on disclosure obligations relating to cybersecurity risks and incidents. More recently, on February 26, 2018 the SEC Commission issued interpretive guidance to help assist public companies prepare disclosures regarding cybersecurity risks and incidents. As reported incidents of cybersecurity breaches occur, investors are concerned about the risks associated with these incidents and the impact they may have on financial performance. Although the SEC staff guidance warns public companies to make timely disclosure, recognizing the threat that cybercrime poses …

Is A Pension Fund's Mix Of Fair Value Investments, Audit Type, And Audit Quality Associated With The Firm's Credit Rating?, Trevor England

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

There has been a proliferation of alternative investment holdings by defined benefit pension plans during the 21^st century. While holdings of alternative investments may advantage pension plans and their sponsoring firms through diversification and/or less volatile returns, they may also present valuation problems because underlying investments in opaquely valued (or marked-to-model) securities contain larger estimation error and uncertainty. Such valuation problems may concern credit reporting agencies because the sponsoring firm’s pension plan liability is uncertain. This problem is exacerbated through agency relationships within pension plans that enable executives and investment managers to engage in opportunistic financial reporting of fair …

Investigating Information Security Policy Characteristics: Do Quality, Enforcement And Compliance Reduce Organizational Fraud?, Dennis T. Brown

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Organizational fraud, a deceitful practice or willful device resorted to with intent to deprive another of his right, or in some manner to do harm or injury, is a growing global concern. While cyberattacks from the outside are more expected, the internal security threat from trusted insiders is responsible for significantly more information compromise than external threats. Information systems make life easier but are increasingly used by employees to perpetrate fraudulent activities. For example, a trusted insider employee with access to sensitive customer databases could misappropriate information and sell it to a competitor for personal gain. These type losses are …

Data Analytics In An Audit: Examining Fraud Risk And Audit Quality, Sondra Smith

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DATA ANALYTICS IN AN AUDIT: EXAMINING FRAUD RISK AND

AUDIT QUALITY

by

Sondra Smith

This study is comprised of two papers which examine, through interviews and an experiment, the current practices of data analytics of CPA firms, whether and how fraud risk impacts the usage of data analytics in an audit, and the effect data analytics has on the efficiency and effectiveness of an audit. The implementation of data analytics in an audit is relatively new, and there is not a good understanding of how it is currently being used in practice. Although historically the auditing profession has been …

Audit Committee Oversight Of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting, Andrea B. Weickgenannt

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

This study investigates the processes audit committees employ to fulfill their obligation to oversee internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). Specifically, I explore audit committee processes within five fundamental internal control components: control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication, and monitoring (COSO, 2013). I consider agency theory and institutional theory, investigating the degree of substantive versus ceremonial processes used by audit committees. Additionally, this study considers comfort theory as it reveals details about how audit committees get “comfortable” with ICFR.

The research questions in this study are examined through a cross-sectional survey of 167 public company audit committee …

Interpersonal Affect, Accountability And Experience In Auditor Fraud Risk Judgments And The Processing Of Fraud Cues, Jennifer Schafer, Brad Schafer

Faculty Articles

This paper examines whether auditors’ affect toward client management influences fraud likelihood judgments and whether accountability and experience with fraud risk judgments moderate this effect. This research also explores the process by which affect influences fraud judgments by examining affect’s influence on the evaluation of fraud evidence cues. Results indicate that more positive affect toward the client results in lower fraud likelihood judgments. Accountability is found to moderate this effect, but only for experienced auditors. These findings have implications for fraud brainstorming sessions where all staff levels provide input into fraud risk assessments and because client characteristics are especially salient …

Fees, Going Concern Opinions And Auditor Dismissals: An Empirical Assessment, Frances Ann Stott

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Auditors issue going concern modified opinions when there is substantial doubt about the company’s ability to continue its operations into the foreseeable future. Companies frequently respond to this type of audit opinion by changing auditors. Critics, such as the SEC, suggest that this may be done in order to opinion shop (i.e., find an auditor who is likely to issue a more favorable unqualified opinion). However, prior research has indicated that opinion shopping may not be effective. Since firms receiving a going concern modified opinion are clearly under significant financial distress, the effect a change in auditor has on subsequent …

Have We Overlooked The Benefits Of Nas, James C. Rich

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Are nonaudit services (NAS) good or bad? Regulators, investors, and the professional accounting community have intensely debated this question for the last five decades. While seemingly a simple question, the abundance of conflicting literature surrounding this topic has indicated that the answer is anything but simple. The professional accounting community maintains that joint provision of the audit engagement and NAS results in a more in-depth knowledge base that positively impacts the auditor/client relationship. Regulators and investors have taken an opposing view by arguing that NAS lead auditors to compromise their independence. While an extensive body of literature has sought to …

General Counsel Characteristics And Financial Reporting Quality, John R. Sparger

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

The general counsel (GC) plays a key role in a firm’s financial reporting system as a participant and governance monitor. As a participant in various disclosure and filing processes and advisor in transactional activities reflected in the firm’s reported results, the GC directly influences a firm’s reported results and disclosures. As a governance monitor, the GC holds a position of public trust and duty to investors based on various laws, rulings and regulations. Accordingly, accounting literature has begun to examine the role of the GC in financial reporting quality. The results of this research have produced conflicting results which indicate …

Merger And Acquisition Financial Reporting Outcomes: An Examination Of Non-Audit Fees And The Impact On Auditor Independence, Jimmy Carmenate

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

For over 40 years, the issue of auditors providing both auditing and non-audit services (NAS) to their audit-clients continues to be at the forefront of concerns to regulators, investors, and academics. The literature primarily provides two competing effects of NAS on financial reporting quality. The first being the compromise on auditor independence and the other on the benefits attained from knowledge spillover. Though these competing effects have been studied in various contexts, there has been little to no research on the association between NAS and the outcomes from mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to infer whether NAS lessens the threat to …

Are Out-Of-Period Adjustments A Type Of Stealth Restatement? An Examination Of Non-Audit Services, Clawback Provisions, And Out-Of-Period Adjustments, Cori Oliver Crews

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Over the last decade, out-of-period adjustments (OOPAs) have risen in popularity in direct contrast to the simultaneous decreasing trend in restatements. This could indicate an improvement in financial reporting quality or could indicate the use of a type of stealth restatement for opportunistic purposes. These less prominent restatements are more likely to go undetected and would be an apt way to perpetuate opportunistic disclosure and to mitigate the likelihood of unfavorable market reactions.

The purpose of this study is to investigate (1) the association between non-audit services (NAS) and OOPAs, (2) the association between clawback provisions and OOPAs, and (3) …

Investigating Information Security Policy Characteristics: Do Quality, Enforcement And Compliance Reduce Organizational Fraud?, Dennis T. Brown

KSU Proceedings on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

Occupational fraud, the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the organization’s resources or assets, is a growing concern for all organizations. While the typical organization loses at least 5% of annual revenues to fraud, current methods of detection and prevention are not fully adequate to reduce increasing occurrences. Although information systems are making life easier, they are increasingly being used to perpetrate fraudulent activities, and internal employee security threat is responsible for more information compromise than external threats.

The purpose of this research is to examine how information security policy quality and …

Research Insights About Risk Governance: Implications From A Review Of Erm Research, Therese R. Viscelli, Mark S. Beasley, Dana R. Hermanson

Faculty Articles

In recent years, expectations for increased risk governance have been placed explicitly on boards of directors. In response, boards are being held responsible for not only understanding and approving management’s risk management processes, but they are also being held responsible for assessing the risks identified by those processes as part of overseeing management’s pursuit of value. These increasing responsibilities have led a number of organizations to adopt enterprise risk management (ERM) as a holistic approach to risk management that extends beyond traditional silo-based risk management techniques. As boards, often through their audit committee, consider management’s implementation of ERM as part …

Enterprise Risk Management: The Transformation Of Board-Level Engagement As Evidenced By Disclosure, Timothy L. Baker

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Utilizing available information about ERM practices within organizations disclosed by boards of directors in annual proxy statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this study expands the understanding of the value of disclosure of board-level ERM oversight information in proxy statements. The study first creates a board-level ERM engagement index (BODERMX) to identify aspects of board engagement in the ERM efforts disclosed by companies. Development of this index will present opportunities to future researchers to conduct empirical ERM-related research as information about firms’ ERM is costly to obtain. The study next examines associations between the extent of …

Audit Firm Rotation, Audit Firm Tenure, And Audit Committee Support In Accounting Disputes, Janice E. Rummell

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Since the late 1990s, U.S. regulators have sought to increase auditors’ independence from management and to reduce the presumed detrimental effects of economic bonding on public company financial reporting. Implementation of mandatory audit firm rotation that limits auditor tenure to reduce potential independence impairment has been discussed in the U.S. and other jurisdictions, and adopted in some non-U.S. jurisdictions. While audit firm rotation is expected to increase auditor independence, the opponents of mandatory rotation cite decreasing auditor expertise as a significant counter-argument. This independence/expertise trade-off is integral to much of the academic discussion of mandatory audit firm rotation. The audit …

Reflective Ethical Decision: A Model For Ethics In Accounting Education, Sandria S. Stephenson

Faculty Articles

This conceptual paper describes a Reflective Ethical Decision Model (REDM), which uses the underpinnings of philosophical humanism in collaboration with self-directed learning to help students determine and design their own personal model construct of ethical values. This model analyzes the necessary ingredients for applying ethics in accounting and business education and offers a hands-on pedagogical approach to the ethics curriculum. It is an illustration students can use to reflect on personal orientations toward ethical behavior and lifelong values. The rationale for proffering such an approach is the notion that the operational orientations that guide human behavior are not fully developed …

The Effects Of Risk Management Programs On Financial Professionals' Judgments, James F. Boyle

Doctor of Business Administration Dissertations

Despite the present focus in practice on enterprise risk management (ERM), academic studies have not responded to the question, “How do risk management programs (RMPs) influence the business decisions of financial professionals?” This study addresses this issue by examining the effects of RMPs on the levels of judgment conservatism and effort exercised by financial professionals. Specifically, in a 2 x 2 between-subjects experiment using experienced financial professionals as participants, I manipulated RMP type (i.e., robust or ceremonial) and financial risk level (i.e., high or low). The study examines the effect of RMP type and the interaction of RMP type and …

Dynamic Pricing In Major League Baseball Tickets: Issues And Challenges, John T. Drea, Andrew Nahlik

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

A rapidly growing trend in the business of professional sports is the use of dynamic pricing as a tool for maximizing revenue generation. Dynamic pricing (DP) is defined as a system in which prices respond to supply and demand pressures in a real time (or nearly real time) manner (Sahay 2007). American Airlines is credited with the first widespread use of DP as a pricing tool to handle the mismatches in supply and demand for certain flights (McAfee & te Velde 2006). DP has spread to numerous other industries, including entertainment, hotels, manufacturing to order, and lately, to Major League …