Accounting Commons^™

A Quantitative Examination Of The Relationship Between Age, Gender, And Burnout In Public Accounting Professionals In A United States National Firm, Jamie Stowe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Scholars and practitioners agree burnout is a significant problem plaguing the public accounting industry. Burnout is a condition that results from long periods of excessive strain on personal resources, and is often found in public accounting professionals due to the high stress and deadline-driven environment. As the causes for burnout are better understood, the focus has turned to why some individuals are more likely to burnout than others. Identifying who has a tendency to burnout can only help in the quest for solutions. The purpose of this correlational quantitative study was to test the theoretical framework of Maslach and Jackson …

A Comprehensive Review Of Accounting Through Case Studies, William O'Keefe

Honors Theses

The following collection of case studies serves as an overview of important concepts in financial reporting. Every publicly traded company is subject to the same financial accounting standards, meaning these concepts have important real-world applications. The goal of this thesis was to investigate further into the specifics of these concepts to gain a better understanding of their impact on the decision-making processes of these companies. The standards that these companies must follow are not uniformly applied to all companies, so the majority of accountants' work comes from assuring that each company's subjective interpretation of the standards is appropriate. The end …

Research And Analysis Of Selected Financial Reporting Topics, Edward Donelson Lake

Honors Theses

Throughout the 2015-2016 school year, I completed several different cases within the realm of financial reporting and accounting. The purpose of this research was not only to familiarize myself with financial reporting methods but also to take a deep dive into the intricacies of financial statements. Thus, this thesis paper will look vastly different than most theses submitted to the Honors College, for it covers a broad range of topics rather than honing in on just one area. The cases range from private companies to public companies, some domestic and some international. Throughout my research, one will find that any …

Small Retail Business Strategies To Detect And Prevent Employee Fraud, Comfort G. Akuh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small businesses have an important role to play in the U.S. economy. However, employee fraud can jeopardize the sustainability of small businesses. Grounded on Cressey's fraud triangle theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies used by selected managers and owners of small retail businesses to detect and prevent employee fraud. Ten participants from 5 small retail businesses participated in the study. Nine participated in a face-to-face semistructured interview, and 1 participated in a telephone interview. These participants included 5 owners and 5 managers of small retail businesses in the state of Michigan in the United …

Accountants And Accounting Educators' Perceptions Of Accounting Certifications/Accreditations And Communication Divides, Brigitte A. Bennerson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Global changes to business exchanges of goods, services, capital, technology, and knowledge requires accountants to have more diverse skill sets than in the past. Practitioners' documented concerns about accounting graduates' inability to function globally. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was twofold: (a) to explore accounting practitioners' and educators' perceptions of the Certified Public Accountant and other accounting certifications and accreditations, and (b) to explore possible communication divides between accounting academia and professionals that may be creating a gap between what employers expect and what they receive from graduates. Phone interviews were conducted with 5 practicing accounting educators and …

Analysis Of Public Accountants: What Personality Traits And Skill Sets Distinguish Auditors And Tax Accountants In The Public Accounting Sphere?, Lauren Madison Wood

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The two main career paths within public accounting are auditing and tax accounting. Auditors render an opinion as to whether a client’s financial statements are fairly presented, while tax accountants provide tax-planning services and prepare tax returns. This study examines the personality traits and non-accounting skill sets of practicing auditors and tax accountants to determine whether there are significant differences between the types of people working in each field. Prior research has analyzed the personality and skill sets of accountants in relation to marketing professionals or financial analysts, but little research has compared the two types of public accountants directly. …

Ua62/4/1 Gordon Ford College Of Business Accounting Administration, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by the Accounting Department chair in the administration of the department.

Identifying Earnings Management: The Case Of Small-Cap Corporations In The United States, Cecilia W. Ricci, Susan O'Sullivan-Gavin

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of large cap companies that have been sanctioned by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for earnings management, and to test those characteristics on small cap companies to determine whether they can be used to detect earnings management in the small cap space. Thirteen non-accrual financial characteristics identified by previous researchers are tested, including both financial ratios and account levels. Univariate and multivariate analysis are used in the determination of the applicability of large company indicators of earnings management to small cap companies.

The Effect Of High School Accounting On The Selection Of College Major, Performance, Satisfaction, And Retention, Gregory T. Marinaccio

Honors Theses and Capstones

The objective of this study is to examine the impact completion of a high school accounting course has on the selection of college major, academic performance in introductory accounting courses, satisfaction with one’s major, and retention. These relations are examined using data from a survey given to 208 students of various majors enrolled in the Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to analyze the data. The results provide evidence of a significant positive relation between high school accounting and two variables: selection of college major, and performance in …

Gender Roles In Public Accounting And The Absence Of Women In Upper Level Management, Sarah Elizabeth Keiran

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act Section 404 And Filing Status, Yanwen Wang

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis focuses on Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which is a United States federal law that sets new or expanded requirements for all U.S. public companies. Section 404 aims to ensure that all public companies have effective internal controls. Section 404 is not applied uniformly across different filers. This thesis focuses on the analyses of small companies as these companies, i.e. non-accelerated filers, got exemption from Section 404 (b), which requires a publicly-held company’s auditor to attest to, and report on, management’s assessment of its internal controls. Because this exemption allows non-accelerated filers to avoid significant compliance cost, the purpose of the …

Assessing Financial Reporting Quality Of Early Stage Private Companies, Devereux D. Evans

Honors Theses and Capstones

There are a variety of widely accepted methods that are used in order to evaluate the financial positioning of companies that are traded on stock exchanges. However, these methods that are common in the public markets do not suffice for assessing companies that are privately held. Attempting to devise an intrinsic value using anticipated cash flows is ineffective given that most companies are pre-revenue. Deriving a value based off of assets held is also inaccurate given that a young company will be in the process of capitalizing itself and more of its assets cannot be represented on a balance sheet, …

Annual Report Readability: The Case Of The Fortune 500, Cecilia W. Ricci

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study adds to the literature on the readability of annual reports submitted to the SEC by assessing current readability, and contemporizing similar studies conducted between 1950 and 1991. The results show that the sample’s 10-Ks are “Very Difficult” to read, and have scores lower than previous research. The study also examines the sample by economic sector, and finds that readability levels are similar among sectors with one exception. These outcomes raise several issues, including the usefulness of the information transfer of 10-Ks, and whether the goals of the SEC are met if 10-Ks are virtually unreadable

Market Adaptation To Regulation Fair Disclosure: The Use Of Industry Information To Enhance The Informational Environment, Susana Yu, Gwendolyn Webb

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Our fundamental research interest is in exploring the ways in which the financial markets have adapted to Reg FD, and our particular focus is on how market participants use industry information embedded in firms’ earnings announcements. We find that announcements of quarterly earnings made by companies that are the first in their industry to report in a given quarter have significant effects on the stock returns of other firms in the same industry as well as on their own stock returns. We then test the implications of these findings for their effects on the information environment. Overall, our empirical findings …

Comovement, Financial Reporting Complexity, And Information Markets: Evidence From The Effect Of Changes In 10-Q Lengths On Internet Search Volumes And Peer Correlations, Joshua J. Filzen, Maria Gabriela Schutte

Accountancy Faculty Publications and Presentations

We investigate the effect of financial reporting complexity on stock comovement. We hypothesize that investors deal with complexity increases by acquiring low cost information. This information is typically informative not just about the firm of interest but also about other firms with similar fundamentals, which generates excess comovement. We find that increases in 10-Q word counts, a complexity proxy, are consistently followed by increases in 1) internet searches about the firm and 2) R²s from regressions between the firm’s returns and its peers’. On a large scale, complexity-induced comovement might hinder investors' ability to discriminate across stocks and …

دور لجان التدقيق في الحد من ممارسات إدارة الارباح وأثرها على جودة التقارير المالية المنشورة للشركات المساهمة العامة العراقية (دراسة تطبيقية على عينه من شركات التأمين المدرجة في سوق العراق للأوراق المالية), علاء حسن كريم الشرع

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى التعرف على دور لجان التدقيق في الحد من ممارسات إدارة الارباح وأثرها علـى جودة التقارير المالية المنشورة لشركات التأمين العراقية المدرجة فـي سوق العراق للأوراق المالية. لتحقيق أهداف هذه الدارسة تم تصميم استبانة وزعت على المدققين الداخليين والمحاسبين العاملين في شركات التأمين العراقية العامة بلغ عددها 110 استبانة تم استرداد 100 استبانة وتمت المعالجة الاحصائية المناسبة في التحليل باستخدام البرنامج الاحصائي SPSSوقد توصل البحث الى مجموعة من النتائج نذكر من اهمها أن إعداد تقارير تخص لجان التدقيق وبصفة دورية مرفقة مع التقارير المالية الدورية وبكل صدق وأمانة يمثل دعماً للجان التدقيق لغرض الارتقاء بمستوى جودة التقارير …

Graduate Bulletin, 2017-2018, Minnesota State University Moorhead

Graduate Bulletins (Catalogs)

No abstract provided.

State Funding And Its Impact On University Funding, Andrew Wolfgang Doppstadt

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Case Analyses Of Standard Accounting Practices, Warren N. Ball

Honors Theses

The completion of this thesis is due mostly in thanks to ACCY 420, a class designed by the Patterson School of Accountancy and taught by Dr. Victoria Dickinson that gives accounting students a structured process for designing their theses on purposeful accounting topics. During my Junior and Senior years, there was a whirlwind of activity surrounding accounting students: accounting classes step into a new realm of difficulty, internship recruiting begins, and eventually my peers and I departed for multi-month internships. All of that activity left us with far less time to work on our theses than students in other academic …

A Compilation Of Accounting Title Studies, William K. Dossett

Honors Theses

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a broad range of accounting topics and issues that are areas of complexity in the accounting profession. Through the course of a year in the independent study course, our class, led by Doctor Dickinson, delved into these topics to further our understanding of them. Each case covered a different topic, and, concerning the matter that we researched, we produced a report. Pertaining to each report, please consult the school archives for the Honors Accounting class for any necessary materials. After completing this thesis, our class has developed an understanding for these accounting …

The Influence Of Cognitive Factors On The Relationship Between Accounting Standard Precision And Aggressive Financial Reporting, Kara E. Hunter

2017

The U.S. SEC has formally advocated for the creation of a single set of global accounting standards. As the SEC considers converging U.S. GAAP with IFRS, there is heightened interest in how the precision of accounting standard influences the quality of the financial reporting process. My dissertation consists of three studies that seek to address how accounting standard precision interacts with different behavioral factors to influence aggressive financial reporting decisions and auditor judgment. Paper one presents evidence of a significant interactive effect of standard precision and preparer incentive horizon. Specifically, we find evidence that when the incentive horizon is long …

Environmental, Social, And Governance Risk And Performance: Implications For Audit And Corporate Governance Research, Jenna J. Burke

2017

This dissertation examines oversight of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related risk and performance. These considerations are a new piece of business language, and are crucial in monitoring and evaluating the sustainable impact of modern corporations. The dissertation is comprised of three archival studies, which together contribute to an emerging accounting literature at the intersection of audit and corporate governance. The first study uses hand-collected data on voluntary board-level committees that oversee ESG-related issues to investigate the performance implications of these committees. This paper presents a theoretical framework and methodology that incorporate the committee’s role in shared value creation and …

The Influence Of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure On Stakeholder Decision-Making, Andrew C. Stuart

2017

As part of the Disclosure Effectiveness Initiative, the SEC is seeking public comments on whether sustainability disclosures are important to investors’ decisions. The interest in sustainability disclosures by the SEC coincides with the recent increase in companies voluntarily publishing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. My dissertation consists of three studies that examine CSR disclosures, with an emphasis on how disclosure influences stakeholder decision-making.

Part one reviews the CSR disclosure literature contained in accounting journals. I find an overlap between CSR disclosure issues and traditional accounting issues examined in the literature. Focusing on where the issues overlap, I separate the CSR …

Restaurants Owner Strategies For Financial Sustainability Beyond 5 Years, Raimi Gnonlonfoun

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The restaurant industry plays an essential role in the U.S. economy. Approximately 26% of small- and medium-sized enterprise restaurants fail during their first year of business operation and 60% cannot sustain beyond 3 years. The objective of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies that small- and medium-sized restaurant owners used to financially sustain business beyond 5 years. The purposive sample consisted of 4 successful restaurant owners who have been in operation for at least 5 years in the southern region of the United States. The general systems theory was the conceptual framework of this study. The data …

Budget Planning, Budget Control, Business Age, And Financial Performance In Small Businesses, Tracy A. Foster

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Over 390,000 businesses failed in the United States in 2014. The primary cause for most business failures is poor planning, and budgets are a primary means of planning. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine to what extent, if any, budget planning, budget control, and the age of the business significantly predict financial performance in small businesses. The target population consisted of small business leaders in the Midwest. Churchill and Lewis's theory on the relative importance of selected management factors of small businesses through 5 stages of development formed the theoretical framework for this study. Data were collected …

Successful Ethical Decision-Making Practices From The Professional Accountants' Perspective, Tammy Tanner Webster

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unethical behavior includes all decisions and actions counterproductive to an organization's mission and can cause irrevocable damage to the organization's professional reputation. The Securities and Exchange Commission reported 807 ethical violations in 2015. This study was underpinned by the ethical leadership theory, which emphasizes leadership decision making based on fair and just practices, for all involved parties. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the ethical decision-making best practices that not-for-profit accounting managers in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area needed to strengthen the ethical decision-making process in their organizations. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from 5 …

Strategies In Mitigating Medicare/Medicaid Fraud Risk, Godfred Adomako

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the fiscal year 2014, approximately 1,337 health care providers lost their provider license to Medicare/Medicaid fraud. Out of the 1,318 criminal convictions reported by the U.S. Medicaid Fraud Control Units (MFCU), 395 (30%) were home health care aides who claimed to have rendered services not provided. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore licensed and certified home health care business managers' strategies to mitigate Medicare/Medicaid fraud risk. A purposive sampling of 9 business managers and chief executive officers from 3 licensed and certified home health care businesses in Franklin County, Ohio participated in semistructured face-to-face interviews. …

Predicting Bank Failure Using Regulatory Accounting Data, Helen Pruitt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A liquidity shortfall in the United States triggered the bankruptcy of several large commercial banks, and bank failures continue to occur, with 50 banks failing between 2013 and 2015. Therefore, it is critical banking regulators understand the correlates of financial performance measures and the potential for banks to fail. In this study, binary logistic regression was employed to assess the theoretical proposition that banks with higher nonperforming loans, lower Tier 1 leverage capital, and higher noncore funding dependence are more likely to fail. Archival data ranging from 2012-2015 were collected from 250 commercial banks listed on the Federal Deposit Insurance …

Interpretations And Implementations Of Various Accounting Standards, Hannah Claire Farmer

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how to interpret and implement a variety of accounting standards. By using a variety of accounting cases, I have researched the issue at hand to determine the proper accounting standard that provides guidance on the way the issue must be treated. In some of these cases, such as the tax case, the guidance regarding the treatment of the tax percentages is very loose. In instances such as these, there may be several answers to the problem at hand. However, in many other cases, the guidance that accompanies the standards relating to the case are very straight-forward and …

Gaap: An Analytical Study Of Financial Accounting Standards, William Mayo

Honors Theses

This thesis is comprised of a series of case studies covering various principles and standards of financial accounting. The thesis was created throughout a single academic year and the case studies are ordered to follow the basic elements of a balance sheet. These case studies include financial statement analysis, income and asset ratios, statement of cash flows, accounts receivable, revenue and inventory recognition, depreciation and fraud, GAAP standards compared to IFRS standards, debt, stockholders' equity, securities, revenue growth and regulatory issues, tax liabilities, and pensions and retirement plans. The purpose of this thesis format is to provide analysis for and …