Accounting Commons^™

The Impact Of Tax Complexity On Foreign Direct Investment Before And After The 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Carlos G. Ramos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an increasingly significant element of today’s global economy. Since the 1980s, global FDI flows have experienced impressive increments up until 2007. FDI flows decreased significantly during the years following the global financial crisis of 2008 and have not yet returned to pre-crisis levels. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, significant changes have occurred in the regulatory and international investment environments while complexity of national tax systems had steadily increased during the past century. This study analyzes the effect of national tax complexity on FDI before and after the 2008 global financial crisis. The Heckman selection …

Detecting Digitally Forged Faces In Online Videos, Neilesh Sambhu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We use Rossler’s FaceForensics dataset of 1004 online videos and their corresponding forged counterparts [1] to investigate the ability to distinguish digitally forged facial images from original images automatically with deep learning. The proposed convolutional neural network is much smaller than the current state-of-the-art solutions. Nevertheless, the network maintains a high level of accuracy (99.6%), all while using the entire FaceForensics dataset and not including any temporal information. We implement majority voting and show the impact on accuracy (99.67%), where only 1 video of 300 is misclassified. We examine why the model misclassified this one video. In terms of tuning …

The Complexity Of Governance And Internal Audit Independence, Lily Bi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Independence is a critical foundation of all internal audit functions and internal audit services. The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) sets The International Standards for Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, which requires that internal audit functions maintain independence, and chief audit executives functionally report to the “board.” The term “board” is interpreted differently in different countries due to the country’s governance models. The diverse corporate governance models create different board structures and the CAE’s reporting relationship with the board. Additionally, the lack of regulatory mandate about internal audit created a reality that internal audit functions are positioned differently depending on …

The Financial And Nonfinancial Performance Measures That Drive Utility Abandonments And Transfers In The State Of Florida, Daniel Acheampong

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The down trending of investor-owned water and wastewater utilities and the continuous increase in utility abandonments and transfers within the regulatory environment motivated the study of investor-owned utilities, using samples from the state of Florida. The study determined the financial and nonfinancial drivers of utility andandonments and transfers. Using the NRRI and Acheampong et al. improved financial ratios, used in utility viability studies (liquidity ratio, leverage ratio, debt to equity ratio, profit trend ratio, growth and efficiency ratio, efficiency ratio, and the profitability ratio), the study identified sixteen nonfinancial performance measures under four categories (output measure, quality measures, owners’ equity …

Exploring The Disconnects Between Cpa Firms And Millennials As It Relates To Tax Preparation, Dustin Micah Grant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Small Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firms are facing a demographic market shift as baby boomers leave the workforce and are replaced by millennials. Today, small CPA firms rely on tax services from baby boomers and older clients for the majority of revenue, but millennials now represent the largest percentage of the workforce. This growing disconnect suggests a potential issue for small CPA firms. The following research explores the issues and opinions of millennial-aged tax filers and partners in small CPA firms on compiling and filing individual federal income tax returns in the United States.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both …

Advances In Global Business And Economics: Volume 2, Cihan Cobanoglu, Muhittin Cavusoglu, Abdulkadir Corbaci

University of South Florida (USF) - M3 Publishing

This is the second volume of the Advances in Global Business and Economics Book Series. This volume has the following parts:

• Part 1: Accounting
• Part 2: Consumer Behavior
• Part 3: Corporate Finance & Governance
• Part 4: Economics
• Part 5: Education & Training
• Part 6: Environmental Issues/Sustainability & Green Tourism
• Part 7: Finance & Banking
• Part 8: Food and Beverage Management
• Part 9: Hospitality & Tourism/Smart Tourism
• Part 10: Human Resource Management
• Part 11: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• Part 12: International Trade
• Part 13: Leisure Management
• Part 14: Management
• Part 15: Social Science Studies
• Part 16: Technology/E-Business/Social Media

ISBN: 978-1-7321275-5-5

Proceedings Of The Global Conference On Business And Economics: Volume 2, Cihan Cobanoglu, Muhittin Cavusoglu, Abdulkadir Corbaci

University of South Florida (USF) - M3 Publishing

This is the second volume of the Global Conference on Business and Economics Proceedings Series.

ISSN: 2641-502X

Cooperation In Community Colleges, Frederic S. Gore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the mounting pressures on institutions of higher education to do more with limited resources, the opportunity to collaborate with other colleges has emerged as a viable tool to create efficiencies and obtain valuable knowledge otherwise unattainable by an institution, even if that collaboration takes place with a competing institution. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are critical to managing student information and college operations, but can be challenging for colleges to implement. Consortia present a unique solution to colleges to address gaps in their expertise and skills needed to achieve a successful ERP implementation. This study explores the factors that …

Two Essays On The Impact Of Cybersecurity Risk Management Examinations On Investor Perceptions And Decisions, Rebecca R. Perols

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) recently adopted cybersecurity risk management examination on investor perceptions and decisions. The dissertation implements a two-essay approach.

Essay 1 examines the effect of voluntary disclosures of joint or separate provisioning of cybersecurity risk management examinations on investor perceptions and decisions, and whether these effects differ when a subsequent cybersecurity incident occurs. Conducting a 2 x 2 between-participants experiment, I find that the negative signal of a subsequent cybersecurity incident reverses investors’ positive perceptions of auditor competence and increases investors’ sensitivity to …

Are Transfer Pricing Disclosures Related To Tax Reporting Transparency? The Impact Of Auditor-Provided Transfer Pricing Services, Stephanie Y. Walton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study I investigate whether managers’ voluntary disclosure of transfer pricing information in the 10-K is related to firms’ tax reporting transparency. Transfer pricing disclosures could be used to convey managers’ private information about risks and uncertainties underlying firms’ transfer pricing activities or alternatively be used to discount or disclaim these risks. Using several common proxies for tax reporting transparency, I find evidence that transfer pricing disclosures are generally associated with lower tax transparency, suggesting that these disclosures may be primarily opportunistic. However, when firms use their auditor for transfer pricing services, I find that these transfer pricing disclosures …

Intangible Capital: Culture Of Innovation And Its Impact On The Cash Flow Multiple, James Russell Gregory

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The definition for a culture of innovation (COI) is the perception of a company that prioritizes the advancement of new ideas that create value across all operations. On the face of it that seems a precious attribute for any company to nurture and exploit, but measuring and valuing a culture of innovation has proven elusive for corporations. There is a tendency to break down innovation into R&D, patents granted, and new product development and while these are all significant components of innovation a cultural definition is more encompassing of the entirety of a company and the financial results should be …

Two Essays On String Of Earnings Benchmarks, Yiyang Zhang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Essay 1 Abstract

Prior research indicates that equity markets assign a higher valuation to firms that sustain a string of earnings increases (earnings string) and a string of meeting or beating analysts’ earnings expectations (MBE string). However, to date, there is little evidence on the response of debt investors when firms sustain a long string of meeting/beating earnings benchmarks. This study fills the gap in the literature by analyzing the impact of sustaining an earnings string/MBE string on the cost of debt. I find evidence of a positive (negative) association between the length of the earnings string/MBE string and the …

Three Essays On Digital Annual Reports For Nonprofessional Investors: The Impacts Of Presentation Formats On Investment-Related Judgments And Decisions, Yibo Zhang (James)

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this dissertation is to investigate the impact of presentation formats on nonprofessional investors’ impressions of firm performance in the context of digital annual reports. The dissertation implements a three-essay approach.

Essay 1 examines whether the effect of positive/negative financial performance news on nonprofessional investors’ impressions of management and firm performance depends on whether the graphical display of that news is vivid or pallid. Conducting a 2 x 2 between-participants experiment with 470 participants from Amazon Mechanical Turk (M-Turk), I find that when the news is positive, presenting graphs vividly allows nonprofessional investors to have a more positive …

The Effect Of Corporate Social Responsibility Investment And Disclosure On Cooperation In Business Collaborations, Sukari Farrington

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I experimentally examine whether disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) investment facilitates cooperation in business collaborations. Business collaborations are essential for firms to maintain their competitive advantage. However, half of all ventures fail. A major reason for this high failure rate is a lack of cooperation among business collaboration partners, known as relational risk. Findings suggest that CSR disclosure leads to greater CSR investment, but does not result in an overall higher level of cooperation. However, CSR disclosure moderates the link between CSR investment and cooperation. When CSR investment is disclosed, cooperation is highest when both managers invest in CSR. …

The Effect Of Expanded Audit Report Disclosures On Users’ Confidence In The Audit And The Financial Statements, Peter Kipp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I investigate how nonprofessional investors’ confidence in the financial statements and the audit report is influenced by the firm specific details of a critical audit matter (CAM) disclosure in conjunction with the description of the audit procedures engaged to address the CAM in the audit report. Using participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk as a proxy for nonprofessional investors in a 2x2 +1 (control) between-participants experiment manipulating CAM disclosure detail (Detailed/Generic) and the description of the audit procedures engaged to address the CAM (Detail/Generic) I find that greater detail in the description of the CAM results in higher confidence in …

Essays On The Tax Policy And Insider Trading, Han Shi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay I examine the relation between firm advertising and tax aggressiveness. Advertising increases firm visibility in both the product and the financial market. While investors would appreciate more tax savings, they are aware of the negative impact of tax aggressiveness on consumers’ views of the firm and hence its competitive positions in the product market. We find that firms that spend more on advertising have fewer tax sheltering activities, lower book-tax differences, and higher cash effective tax rates. Specifically, an increase of 1% on Advertising_i,t (ADVGP_i,t), the firm pays an additional tax of $0.70 …

Applying The Theory Of Planned Behavior To Influence Auditors' Knowledge-Sharing Behavior, Xu Cheng

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study adopts the theory of planned behavior to understand and influence auditors’ knowledge-sharing behavior. Ajzen (1991) indicates that persuasive communications, such as belief-targeted messages, can be used as behavioral interventions to alter intentions and behaviors. Thus, this study develops and evaluates the effectiveness of behavioral interventions (belief-targeted messages) in encouraging auditors’ knowledge-sharing behavior. This study uses a 2×2 between-participants design. Arguments targeting behavioral beliefs and arguments targeting normative beliefs are manipulated. Consistent with expectations, the results of this study were that (1) auditors exposed to an intervention share more knowledge, compared to auditors not exposed to any interventions; (2) …

The Effect Of Presentation Format On Investor Judgments And Decisions: Does The Effect Differ For Varying Task Demands?, Kevin Agnew

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the efficacy of presenting footnotes information in alternative display formats on investors’ judgments and decisions. Non-professional investors play a significant role in the capital markets yet they do not always attend to information contained in footnote disclosures. As a result, nonprofessional investors systematically misprice firms and misallocate resources. Recognizing that increased mandatory and voluntary disclosures create additional challenges for non-professional investors, both the FASB and SEC have actively sought ways to increase the effectiveness of disclosures. I hypothesize that high display proximity, low signal-to-noise presentation formats can increase investors’ attention to and processing of footnote disclosures and …

Increasing Auditor Sensitivity To The Risk Of Fraudulent Financial Reporting: Assessing Incentives And Pressures On Top Management, Donald Wengler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ability of auditors to detect fraud, including intentional material misstatements in earnings, remains key to the credibility of audit firms and confidence in capital markets. The PCAOB concludes from its most recent inspections of public company audits that auditors often fail to assess and respond to risks of material misreporting by management. In a behavioral experiment, this study concludes that auditors can increase sensitivity to management motivation to misreport by actively seeking to transform identified risk factors focused on the organization, into factors focused on top managers, and to evaluate whether these manager-focused risk factors represent incentives for personal …

Does The Format Of Internal Control Disclosures Matter? An Experimental Investigation Of Nonprofessional Investor Behavior, Amanuel Fekade Tadesse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates whether the current lack of structure of internal control weakness disclosures (a narrative about the reliability of the financial reporting system) leads nonprofessional investors to make differential investment decisions. Using the non-accelerated filer (smaller public company) setting, where nonprofessional investors are likely to consume unaudited internal control reports in their investing judgments and decisions, I examine two facets of internal control disclosure formats: presentation salience and disaggregation of material weaknesses. A 2 x 2 between-participants behavioral experiment was conducted with internal control presentation salience (bulleted vs. in-text) and disaggregation level (a single material weakness vs. a combination …

Retail Investors' Perceptions Of Financial Disclosures On Social Media: An Experimental Investigation Using Twitter, Neal Michael Snow

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Historically, companies disseminated financial information via the press release. The ability to disseminate information now exists on multiple "new media" channels beyond just the press release, with each channel reaching a different audience. With the different channels of communication come different connotations and associations that people have about the channels, which may affect the interpretation of the message, thereby altering management's ability to effectively communicate with stakeholders. I investigate whether retail investors' processing of financial information disclosures is dependent upon the fit between the channel and the type of information sent on the channel. Using the Elaboration Likelihood Model, I …

Essays On Mergers And Acquisitions, Marcin Krolikowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two essays that examine mergers and acquisitions. In the first essay we examine how pay-for-performance influences the quality of merger decisions before and after Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). Pay-for performance has a significant positive effect on acquirer returns of 0.9% pre-SOX and 1.1% post-SOX around the three day event window. Bidders with high pay-for-performance pay a 23.3% lower merger premium in listed target acquisitions. The positive effect of pay-for-performance is more important for public target acquisitions overall, for small acquirers pre-SOX, and for large acquirers post-SOX. In the long-run, bidders with high pre-merger pay-for-performance experience 27.6% higher returns after …

Do Social Biases Impede Auditor Reliance On Specialists? Toward A Theory Of Social Similarity, Rina Maxine Limor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Does social similarity between the auditor and a specialist induce social biases that impair the auditor's reliance on the specialist? It is important to examine potential impairments to reliance since auditors do not possess expertise in many of the areas examined during the audit. One type of specialist that is increasingly relied upon by the auditor is the IT specialist.

Since firms have two approaches to the organization of IT personnel (decentralized vs. centralized) and often use professional designations as a hiring criteria for specialists, I examine two dimensions of social similarity: domain knowledge distinctiveness and spatial distance. Using a …

Multi-Task Setting Involving Simple And Complex Tasks: An Exploratory Study Of Employee Motivation, Maia Jivkova Farkas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, employees are given autonomy in effort allocation across two tasks - complex and simple tasks, where the return to the organization is significantly higher for the complex task requiring high skill than for the simple task requiring low skill. An unavoidable feature of multi-task settings is that effort expended on one task detracts from effort that can be expended on another task. This effort trade-off among tasks becomes problematic when the returns from different tasks are unequal, with important consequences for a firm's overall performance. The design of management accounting control systems in such multi-task setting is …

Review Of Financial Intelligence For Entrepreneurs: What You Really Need To Know About The Numbers By Karen Berman And Joe Knight, With John Case., H. L. Vacher

Numeracy

Berman, Karen and Knight, Joe, with John Case. Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs: What You Really Need to Know about the Numbers, (Boston MA: Harvard Business Press, 2008). 285 pp. ISBN 978-1-4221-1915-0.

From “The art of finance (and why it matters)” (Part One) through “Creating a financially intelligent company” (Part Eight), Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs is an engaging explanation and appreciation of financial statements and financial ratios. Short, easily digested chapters; just-in-time boxes to introduce terminology; easy, direct, in-text calculations from bare-bones, hypothetical financial statements to illustrate concepts; a 44-page appendix of crafted exercises on the income statement, balance sheet, …

Financial Literacy And The Success Of Small Businesses: An Observation From A Small Business Development Center, Pearl Dahmen, Eileen Rodríguez

Numeracy

Small business is the backbone of the U.S. economy; when the financial literacy skills of entrepreneurs fall short of those needed to operate a successful business, it is more than the individual business at risk. In 2012, 14 small businesses requesting growth-acceleration consulting services from the Florida Small Business Development Center at the University of South Florida were assessed financially as part of the service provided by the Center. Financial ratios were used to analyze the business’s financial condition. While performing the financial analysis of these firms, we also surveyed the business owners to determine their level of financial understanding …

Do Changing Reference Levels Affect The Long-Term Effectiveness Of Incentive Contracts?, Lee Michael Kersting

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines whether reference levels change over time and the impact on individuals' risk-taking behavior. I apply expectations-based reference-dependent preferences theory to analyze whether individuals' reference levels change over time in an economic setting. The theory suggests that individuals develop reference levels based on expectations of future outcomes (Koszegi and Rabin 2006). Therefore, this study examines whether individuals' expectations affect the setting of their reference level and how possible changes in reference levels affect subsequent risk-taking behavior. This study also provides evidence on how budget-based contracts impact individual risk taking behavior in a single period setting. Prior research has …

Psychological Distance: The Relation Between Construals, Mindsets, And Professional Skepticism, Jason Rasso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine the influence of construals (interpretations) and mindsets on professional skepticism in auditors. Auditors have been criticized lately for not displaying enough professional skepticism, particularly in their audits of complex estimates (PCAOB 2008). Regulators speculate about and academic research shows a correlation between low professional skepticism and both audit failures and audit malpractice claims (Beasley et al. 2001; Anderson and Wolfe 2002). I hypothesize that prolonging the deliberative mindset in the audit judgment and decision-making process can increase professional skepticism in auditors.

Experienced auditors take part in a 1 x 3 between-participants experiment in which they …

Two Essays On The Sell-Side Financial Analysts, Xi Liu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the first essay titled "The Information Role of Analysts' Contrarian Revisions," I study a special group of revisions: contrarian revisions, defined as recommendation changes that are inconsistent with sizable stock price movements during the past week. I find that contrarian revisions are relatively more informative than trending revisions. In particular, contrarian revisions are associated with a both statistically and economically larger post-announcement drift. I also find contrarian downgrades are less likely to be issued by all-star analysts and analysts with more experience. After implementation of Regulation RD, the market reaction to contrarian revisions issued by all-stars significantly decreases, indicating …

An Empirical Investigation Of Decision Aids To Improve Auditor Effectiveness In Analytical Review, Robert N. Marley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is considerable evidence in the audit literature that even though auditors usually identify the relevant information needed to propose and select the correct cause of an unexpected fluctuation, they frequently do not propose the correct cause, and even when they do propose the correct cause, they often fail to select it. I suggest that working memory limitations might be a factor contributing to this analytical review paradox. Consequently, this study investigates whether two new decision aids, designed from Cognitive Load Theory, reduce auditors' cognitive load during analytical review, freeing cognitive resources for problem solving, and ultimately leading to improved …