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Articles 871 - 900 of 918

Full-Text Articles in Accounting

Escalation And De-Escalation Of Commitment To Information Systems Projects: Insights From An Approach-Avoidance Process Model, Gary Pan, Shan Ling Pan Dec 2006

Escalation And De-Escalation Of Commitment To Information Systems Projects: Insights From An Approach-Avoidance Process Model, Gary Pan, Shan Ling Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We view escalation and de-escalation of commitment as processes involving recurring instances of approach-avoidance conflict. This paper outlines an approach-avoidance process model for describing and analyzing escalation and de-escalation of commitment in information systems projects. In the model, the sequential mapping of project events is integrated with a model of approach-avoidance conflict that identifies periods of gradual evolution at two separate levels of social analysis (project and work) that are punctuated by sudden, revolutionary periods of rapid change. By conceiving the processes of commitment escalation and de-escalation as sequences of events involving approach-avoidance conflicts, researchers may develop a deeper understanding …

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Insider Trading And Voluntary Disclosures, Qiang Cheng, Kin Lo Dec 2006

Insider Trading And Voluntary Disclosures, Qiang Cheng, Kin Lo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We hypothesize that insiders strategically choose disclosure policies and the timing of their equity trades to maximize trading profits, subject to the litigation costs associated with disclosure and insider trading. Accounting for endogeneity between disclosures and trading, we find that when managers plan to purchase shares, they increase the number of bad news forecasts to reduce the purchase price. In addition, this relation is stronger for trades initiated by chief executive officers than for those initiated by other executives. Confirming this strategic behavior, we find that managers successfully time their trades around bad news forecasts, buying fewer shares beforehand and …

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Management And Self-Activity: Accounting For The Crisis In Profit-Taking, Stefano Harney Nov 2006

Management And Self-Activity: Accounting For The Crisis In Profit-Taking, Stefano Harney

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The crisis in measurement identified by those working in the tradition of Italian autonomia has consequences for the critique of accounting and management. If both capitalist work and the commodity are today communicative and overtly political, a critique that merely points to these characteristics will have no transformative effect. This paper uses the Trinidadian Marxist theorist C.L.R. James’s notion of self-activity to suggest that the crisis in measurement is a symptom of the separation of work and value. The institution of forms of self-management and what might be called wars of command begin to replace the governmentality of the wage …

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Institutional Holdings And Analysts’ Stock Recommendations, Qiang Cheng, Xia Chen Oct 2006

Institutional Holdings And Analysts’ Stock Recommendations, Qiang Cheng, Xia Chen

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Prior studies document that institutional investors outperform the mar- ket. We investigate whether this superior performance is partly derived from institutional investors use of sell-side analysts stock recommenda- tions. First, we find that the quarterly change in institutional ownership is positively correlated with consensus recommendations. After control- ling for other determinants of institutional holdings, the quarterly change in institutional ownership is on average 0.90 percent higher for firms with favorable recommendations than for those with unfavorable recommendations. Second, using large trades to proxy for institutional trading, we find that there are more buyer-initiated than seller-initiated large trades around favorable recommendations …

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Performance, Growth And Earnings Management, Chi Wen Jevons Lee, Laura Yue Li, Heng Yue Sep 2006

Performance, Growth And Earnings Management, Chi Wen Jevons Lee, Laura Yue Li, Heng Yue

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We study the relationship between the amount of managed earnings and firms' earnings performance and expected growth in a reporting model, where managers manipulate earnings to influence the valuation of firms' equity while bearing a cost that is increasing and convex in the amount of managed earnings. In the unique revealing equilibrium to the model, firms with higher performance and growth over-report earnings by a larger amount because price responsiveness increases with earnings performance and growth. And earnings quality, defined as the proportion of true economic earnings in total reported earnings, increases with earnings performance but decreases with earnings growth. …

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Escalation And De-Escalation Of Commitment To Information Systems Projects: Insights From A Project Evaluation Model, Shan Ling Pan, Gary S. C. Pan, Michael Newman, Donal Flynn Sep 2006

Escalation And De-Escalation Of Commitment To Information Systems Projects: Insights From A Project Evaluation Model, Shan Ling Pan, Gary S. C. Pan, Michael Newman, Donal Flynn

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper outlines a project evaluation model for examining escalation and de-escalation of commitment to information systems projects. We view escalation and de-escalation of commitment as processes involving recurring instances of approach-avoidance conflict. In the model, the sequential mapping of project events is integrated with a model of approach-avoidance conflict that identifies periods of gradual evolution at two separate levels of social analysis (project and work) that are punctuated by sudden, revolutionary periods of rapid change. By conceiving the processes of commitment escalation and de-escalation as sequences of events involving approach-avoidance conflicts, researchers may develop a deeper understanding of how …

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Evidence On The Relationship Between Takaful Insurance And Fundamental Perception Of Islamic Principles, Ramin Cooper Maysami, John Joseph Williams Aug 2006

Evidence On The Relationship Between Takaful Insurance And Fundamental Perception Of Islamic Principles, Ramin Cooper Maysami, John Joseph Williams

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

One of the complexities overarching the concept of Islamic insurance is anchored in the belief system pertaining to fundamental Islamic Law, while another is embedded in the role of profit within the takaful contract. The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the association between the awareness of the existence of Islamic insurance (takaful) and religious perceptions of this financial service.

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The Association Between Audit Quality And Abnormal Audit Fees, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang Aug 2006

The Association Between Audit Quality And Abnormal Audit Fees, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a sample of 9,820 firm-year observations over the 2000-2003 period, this paper examines whether, and how, audit quality proxied by unsigned discretionary accruals is associated with abnormal audit fees, i.e., actual audit fees in excess of expected, normal audit fees. The results of various regressions reveal that the association between the two is insignificant for the full sample, significantly positive for the subsample of clients with positive abnormal fees, and insignificantly negative for the subsample of clients with negative abnormal fees. The above results suggest that auditors’ incentives to compromise audit quality differ systematically for more profitable clients (with …

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Winter Wine Tourists In Canada's Niagara Region, Carmen W. Cullen, Eugene Kaciak, Linda Bramble, Barry Wright, Alfred E. Seaman, John Joseph Williams Jul 2006

Winter Wine Tourists In Canada's Niagara Region, Carmen W. Cullen, Eugene Kaciak, Linda Bramble, Barry Wright, Alfred E. Seaman, John Joseph Williams

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper represents the first stage in a multi-seasonal investigation of peak, off-peak and shoulder season winery tourists in Canada’s Niagara region. The goal of the study reported here is to better understand the off-peak winery tourist – that strange creature who chooses to visit a winery in the dead of Canadian winter. Who are these people?

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Loss Function Asymmetry And Forecast Optimality: Evidence From Individual Analysts' Forecasts, Stanimir Markov, Min Yen Tan May 2006

Loss Function Asymmetry And Forecast Optimality: Evidence From Individual Analysts' Forecasts, Stanimir Markov, Min Yen Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the optimality of quarterly earning forecasts issued by individual analysts. When we conduct Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Least Absolute Deviations (LAD) analyses, which assume loss function symmetry, we reject the null of forecast optimality at 5% significance level more than 5% of the time. Relaxing the symmetry assumption reduces the frequency of rejections below 5%. We demonstrate that the cross-sectional variation in the asymmetry parameter of the loss function is related to analyst employment. Overall, our evidence is consistent with the joint hypothesis of asymmetric loss and forecast optimality rather than the alternative of symmetric loss and …

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Accounting Students' Perceptions Of A Learning Management System: An International Comparison, Illias Basioudis, Paul De Lange, Themin Suwardy, Paul Wells Mar 2006

Accounting Students' Perceptions Of A Learning Management System: An International Comparison, Illias Basioudis, Paul De Lange, Themin Suwardy, Paul Wells

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The impact and use of technology on learning outcomes for accounting students is not well understood. This study investigated impact of design features of an ‘off the shelf’ Learning Management System (LMS) in teaching undergraduate accounting students. Specifically, responses elicited from students located in the UK, Australia and New Zealand form the basis of the study which reports on a number of design features in the LMS (e.g. delivery of lecture notes, announcements, on-line assessment and model answers) used to deliver learning materials regarded as necessary to enhance learning outcomes. Responses from 825 on-campus students provided international data to develop …

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Empirical Evidence On Jurisdictions That Adopt Ifrs, Ole-Kristian Hope, Justin Jin, Tony Kang Jan 2006

Empirical Evidence On Jurisdictions That Adopt Ifrs, Ole-Kristian Hope, Justin Jin, Tony Kang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have recently been adopted in a number of jurisdictions, including the European Union. Despite the importance of IFRS in the context of global accounting standards harmonization, little is known regarding what institutional factors influence countries' decisions to voluntarily adopt IFRS. This issue is relevant to standard-setters because a better understanding of the motivations for adoption will enable them to promote IFRS more effectively to countries that currently do not employ IFRS. Consistent with bonding theory, we find that countries with weaker investor protection mechanisms are more likely to adopt IFRS. Our evidence also shows that …

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Impact Of Gender And Ethnic Composition Of South African Boards Of Directors On Intellectual Capital Performance, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn Jan 2006

Impact Of Gender And Ethnic Composition Of South African Boards Of Directors On Intellectual Capital Performance, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines the association between the gender and ethnic composition of boards of directors and firm performance in a transitional nation. In contrast to prior research that largely focuses on firm performance within a financial context, this study concentrates on intellectual capital performance. Using data collected from 84 South African, empirical results indicate a positive association between the percentage of female and non-white directors on the board and a firm’s intellectual capital performance. Additional analysis shows the designation of female directors as an insider has a negative effect of intellectual capital performance. Designation of female and non-white directors as …

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Accounting Restatements: Are They Always Bad News For Investors?, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen, Joshua Livnat Jan 2006

Accounting Restatements: Are They Always Bad News For Investors?, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen, Joshua Livnat

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates a large sample of financial statement restatements over the period 1986-2001, and compares restatements caused by changes in accounting principles to those caused by errors. Typically, investors perceive restatements as negative signals due to three potential reasons: (a) the restatement indicates problems with the accounting system that may be manifestations of broader operational (and managerial) problems, (b) the restatement causes downward revisions in future cash flows expectations, and (c) the restatement indicates managerial attempts to cover up income decline through “cooking the books.” We provide evidence that market reactions to restatements due to errors are generally negative. …

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E-Government Capabilities And Crisis Management: Lessons From Combating Sars In Singapore, Shan Ling Pan, Gary Pan, Paul R. Devadoss Dec 2005

E-Government Capabilities And Crisis Management: Lessons From Combating Sars In Singapore, Shan Ling Pan, Gary Pan, Paul R. Devadoss

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The city-state of Singapore has been highly ranked for its e-government services. Over the past two decades, it has leveraged its IT infrastructure for economic development and transformed its public services. The SARS outbreak in 2004 turned into a national health crisis because it spread rapidly and the medical community had little knowledge of how to treat the new mutation of the corona virus. Yet, several Singaporean government agencies utilized the e-Government infrastructure and related resources to quickly bring the outbreak under control. In particular, the government?s IT infrastructure streamlined communications, information exchange, and data flow, and significantly eased collaboration …

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Accounting Conservatism And Managerial Incentives, Young Koan Kwon Nov 2005

Accounting Conservatism And Managerial Incentives, Young Koan Kwon

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

There are two sources of agency costs under moral hazard: (1) distortions in incentive contracts and (2) implementation of suboptimal decisions. In the accounting literature, the relation between conservative accounting and agency costs of type (1) has received considerable attention (cf. Watts 2002). However, little appears to be known about the effects of accounting conservatism on agency costs of type (2) or trade-offs between agency costs of types (1) and (2). The purpose of this study is to examine this void. In a principal-agent setting in which the principal motivates the agent to expend effort using accounting earnings, this study …

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Client, Industry And Country Factors Affecting Choice Of Big N Industry Expert Auditors, Michael Ettredge, Soo Young Kwon, Chee Yeow Lim Sep 2005

Client, Industry And Country Factors Affecting Choice Of Big N Industry Expert Auditors, Michael Ettredge, Soo Young Kwon, Chee Yeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates client choice of industry specialist auditors from among the Big N (Big 4 or 5) in an international (non-U.S.) setting. We investigate client-specific, industry-level and country-level factors hypothesized to enhance or decrease Big N clients' demand for industry expertise. Using data for 29 countries and 14 broad industries from 1993-2005, we find that international client choice of industry specialist Big N auditors is positively associated with client size, client growth opportunities, and client capital intensity. The choice of industry specialists from among the Big N is more prevalent in countries where levels of investor protection, quality of …

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Separating The Effects Of Asymmetric Incentives And Inefficient Use Of Information On Financial Analysts' Consensus Earnings Forecast Errors, Stanimir Markov, Min Yen Tan Sep 2005

Separating The Effects Of Asymmetric Incentives And Inefficient Use Of Information On Financial Analysts' Consensus Earnings Forecast Errors, Stanimir Markov, Min Yen Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Prior research on financial analysts’ consensus earnings forecast errors has tended to explore either incentives-based or inefficient information use-based explanations for the properties of the analysts’ forecast errors. This has limited our understanding of financial analysts’ expectation formation process as incentives and cognitive biases are likely to simultaneously affect the properties of the analysts’ consensus forecast errors. Our main contribution is in separating these two effects. In particular, using consensus quarterly earnings forecast data, we document that analysts have asymmetric loss function and that they do not fully use information about past earnings and forecast errors in minimizing their expected …

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Firm Ownership Structure And Intellectual Capital Disclosures, Stephen Firer, S. M. Williamson May 2005

Firm Ownership Structure And Intellectual Capital Disclosures, Stephen Firer, S. M. Williamson

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the association between three ownership structure characteristics and voluntary intellectual capital (IC) disclosure practices. Data for this study is hand collected from the 2000 annual reports of 390 Singapore publicly traded firms. Empirical results indicate Singapore publicly traded firms more closely owned were less likely to voluntarily disclose IC related information than were those where executive directors had smaller holdings in the entity. Finally, findings indicate government linked corporations (GLCs) will likely make more voluntary IC disclosures than non-GLCs. Overall, this study makes several unique contributions to the literature. First, the …

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Audit Quality, Legal And Disclosure Environments, And Analysts' Forecast Accuracy: Some International Evidence, Jong-Hag Choi, Tony Kang, Young Koan Kwon, Yoonseok Zang May 2005

Audit Quality, Legal And Disclosure Environments, And Analysts' Forecast Accuracy: Some International Evidence, Jong-Hag Choi, Tony Kang, Young Koan Kwon, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this study, we investigate the relation between the quality of external audit and earnings predictability of firms situated in different legal and disclosure environments around the world. In a sample of multinational firms cross-listed in the United States, we find that the association between audit quality and forecast accuracy is stronger in weak legal and disclosure environments than in strong legal and disclosure environments. We interpret these results as suggesting that audit service can serve as an alternative device to improve market participants' information environment in weak legal and disclosure environments.

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Information Systems Project Abandonment: A Stakeholder Analysis, Gary Shan Chi Pan Apr 2005

Information Systems Project Abandonment: A Stakeholder Analysis, Gary Shan Chi Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This case study reports on the experience of an organization in Singapore in implementing and eventually abandoning an electronic procurement project. By means of a stakeholder analysis, it examines stakeholders’ roles in the organization's decision to abandon the software project. This study uses Freeman's stakeholder analytical framework (Freeman, R. (1984). Strategic management: a stakeholder approach. Massachusetts: Pitman) to interpret data and develop four major findings. By providing a better understanding of project stakeholders’ perceptions, expectations and interrelationships during project development, this study presents researchers with a project abandonment evaluation framework that is enhanced with a stakeholder perspective. The lessons learned …

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The Role Of Analysts’ Forecasts In Accounting-Based Valuation: A Critical Evaluation, Qiang Cheng Jan 2005

The Role Of Analysts’ Forecasts In Accounting-Based Valuation: A Critical Evaluation, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper critically evaluates the use of analysts forecasts in accounting-based valuation. Specifically, I assess the usefulness and the limitation of analysts forecasts in predicting future earnings and in explaining the market-to-book ratio, in light of a comprehensive set of 22 explicit information items, including: economic rent proxies, conservative accounting proxies, earnings quality signals, transitory earnings proxies, industry characteristics, and risk and growth proxies. While analysts forecasts capture 45–83% of the information from these sources depending on model specifications, they do not appear to fully incorporate certain information items. In particular, proxies for conservative accounting and transitory earnings are incrementally …

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The Effects Of Sfas 131 Geographic Segment Disclosures On The Valuation Of Foreign Earnings, Ole-Kristian Hope, Tony Kang, Wayne Thomas, Florin Vasvari Jan 2005

The Effects Of Sfas 131 Geographic Segment Disclosures On The Valuation Of Foreign Earnings, Ole-Kristian Hope, Tony Kang, Wayne Thomas, Florin Vasvari

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Foreign operations are becoming increasingly important for U.S. companies. We investigate whether the market’s valuation of foreign earnings is a function of the firm’s geographic segment disclosures. Specifically, we examine the effects of an increase in the number of geographic segments disclosed and the inclusion of earnings measures in geographic segment disclosures following the adoption of SFAS 131. We find strong evidence that our proxies for increased disclosure are positively associated with the valuation of foreign earnings. Our results are robust to a number of sensitivity analyses. Taken together, our results suggest that the pricing of foreign earnings is associated …

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Domestic And Foreign Earnings, Stock Return Variability, And The Impact Of Investor Sophistication, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen, Ole-Kristian Hope Jan 2005

Domestic And Foreign Earnings, Stock Return Variability, And The Impact Of Investor Sophistication, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen, Ole-Kristian Hope

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the importance of foreign earnings relative to domestic earnings for a sample of U.S. multinationals using variance decomposition. Our methodology represents an alternative and complementary approach over the prior literature, which is based on traditional regressions and earnings response coefficients. We document that domestic earnings are more important in explaining the variance of unexpected returns than are foreign earnings and that the relative importance of domestic earnings is a decreasing function of investor sophistication. Last, we classify institutional investors as either short- or long-term oriented following Bushee [1998]. We find that the variance contribution of foreign earnings increases …

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Intellectual Capital Performance And Cash-Based Incentive Payments: Impact Of Remuneration Committee And Corporate Governance Features, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh, Alistair Brown Jan 2005

Intellectual Capital Performance And Cash-Based Incentive Payments: Impact Of Remuneration Committee And Corporate Governance Features, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh, Alistair Brown

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

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Voluntary Decisions On Audit Committee Composition And Expertise And The Influence Of Board Of Director Characteristics: Further Evidence From Singapore, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh Jan 2005

Voluntary Decisions On Audit Committee Composition And Expertise And The Influence Of Board Of Director Characteristics: Further Evidence From Singapore, Jean-Luc Wolfgang Mitchell Van Der Zahn, Inderpal Singh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.

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What Determines Residual Income?, Qiang Cheng Jan 2005

What Determines Residual Income?, Qiang Cheng

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper investigates the determinants of residual income scaled by book value of equity, i.e., abnormal return on equity (ROE), by analyzing the impact of value-creation (economic rents) and value-recording (conservative accounting) processes on abnormal ROE. I rely on economic theories to characterize economic rents and develop an empirical measure—the conservative accounting factor—to capture the effect of conservative accounting. As expected, industry abnormal ROE increases with industry concentration, industry-level barriers to entry, and industry conservative accounting factors. Also as expected, the difference between firm and industry abnormal ROE increases with market share, firm size, firm-level barriers to entry, and firm …

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Equity Incentives And Earnings Management, Qiang Cheng, Terry Warfield Jan 2005

Equity Incentives And Earnings Management, Qiang Cheng, Terry Warfield

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This paper examines the link between managers' equity incentives—arising from stock-based compensation and stock ownership—and earnings management. We hypothesize that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to sell shares in the future and this motivates these managers to engage in earnings management to increase the value of the shares to be sold. Using stock-based compensation and stock ownership data over the 1993–2000 time period, we document that managers with high equity incentives sell more shares in subsequent periods. As expected, we find that managers with high equity incentives are more likely to report earnings that meet or just …

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The Impact Of Culture On Accounting Choices: Can Cultural Conservatism Explain Accounting Conservatism?, Tony Kang, Lian Fen Lee, Jeffrey Ng, Joanne Tay Jul 2004

The Impact Of Culture On Accounting Choices: Can Cultural Conservatism Explain Accounting Conservatism?, Tony Kang, Lian Fen Lee, Jeffrey Ng, Joanne Tay

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We explore the extent to which cultural conservatism explains accounting conservatism. Our primary measure for accounting conservatism is the magnitude of non-operating accruals, which are highly discretionary in nature. Culture permeates values and attitudes, and thus governs many aspects of human behavior. Hence it is likely to affect managers’ accounting choice behaviors. However, there is surprisingly little evidence on the association between the two types of conservatism in the literature. Using a sample of 800 firms originating from 21 countries during the nine-year period from 1993 to 2001, we find strong evidence that the managers in more conservative cultural environments …

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Assessing The Relative Informativeness And Permanence Of Pro Forma Earnings And Gaap Operating Earnings, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Erv Black, Ted Christensen, Chad Larson Dec 2003

Assessing The Relative Informativeness And Permanence Of Pro Forma Earnings And Gaap Operating Earnings, Nilabhra Bhattacharya, Erv Black, Ted Christensen, Chad Larson

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study investigates whether market participants perceive pro forma earnings to be more informative and more persistent than GAAP operating income by analyzing a sample of 1,149 actual pro forma press releases. We find that pro forma announcers report frequent GAAP losses and are mostly concentrated in the service and high-tech industries. Our analyses of short-window abnormal returns and revisions in analysts’ one-quarter-ahead earnings forecasts indicate that pro forma earnings are more informative and more permanent than GAAP operating earnings. Our evidence suggests that market participants believe pro forma earnings are more representative of “core earnings” than GAAP operating income.

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