Accounting Commons^™

Beyond Borders: Uncertainty In Supragovernmental Tax Enforcement And Corporate Investment, Zackery D. Fox, Martin Jacob, Jaron H. Wilde, Ryan J. Wilson

Faculty Publications

Amid growing globalization, many countries have offered tax incentives to attract corporate investment. Prior research studies the role such incentives play in firms’ location and investment choices. However, we have limited evidence on the role that uncertainty about the intensity of future tax enforcement plays in those decisions. In 2013, the European Commission (“E.C.”) abruptly began investigating tax ruling practices of several countries in response to allegations that certain firms received preferential tax treatment (“state aid cases”). We use this setting to study the economic consequences of increased uncertainty about future tax enforcement. We find evidence consistent with significant reductions …

Subjective Evaluation Of Professional Employees: Work-Day Duration As A Heuristic To Evaluate Output, Sara Wick

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate how information that should not signal output quality influences managers’ evaluations. To address this objective, I pose the following research question: In a setting where professional employees generate output that cannot be evaluated objectively, will managers use work-day duration to subjectively evaluate the quality of their output?

I address my research question using two experiments where I vary employees’ work-day duration relative to their peers (short versus equal) and the purpose of the evaluation (bonus versus promotion) while observing how supervisors make subjective quality evaluations about their output. I find that when …

Let The Punishment Fit The Crime: How Retributive Fairness Perceptions Influence Observers’ Tax Compliance Intentions, Tisha King

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of my research is to investigate how perceptions of retributive justice influence tax compliance. I address this objective by proposing two research questions: (1) How do taxpayers perceive the propriety of punishment for tax evasion? (2) How and when are observers’ compliance intentions influenced by perceptions of fairness disclosures about a specific retributive outcome, and the presence of a fairness-relevant disclosure?

To address the first research question, I conduct a survey of 331 adult Canadian taxpayers to ascertain the extent to which taxpayers perceive punishments for tax evasion as fair or unfair. I find that an appropriate punishment …

Decipher The Effect Of Gamification In Harnessing Boredom And Improving Performance, Zhuoyi Zhao

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

My thesis investigates the effectiveness of gamification in harnessing boredom and improving performance in a repetitive work process. In video games, “loot” rewards are unpredictable, intermittent gains used to motivate players to repeat boring actions. In a 2 X 2 experiment, I examine how loot rewards in point form may impact 1) disengagement, which is an immediate outcome of boredom, and 2) performance in settings where the points have and do not have cash value, respectively. More specifically, I manipulate the level of point reward unpredictability (fixed versus loot) and whether point rewards have cash value (absent versus present).

In …

Project Task Force - Conceptual Framework, Independence Standards Board

Association Sections, Divisions, Boards, Teams

No abstract provided.

How Do Team Workloads And Team Staffing Affect The Audit? Archival Evidence From U.S. Audits, Brant E. Christensen, Nathan J. Newton, Michael S. Wilkins

Faculty Publications

We use U.S. data from a global accounting firm to investigate how two key elements of audit teams eworkloads and staffing continuity e affect the audit. We find that heavier team workloads are associated with lower audit quality, particularly when team members have lower performance ratings or have total workloads that exceed 60 h per week. In addition to finding evidence of employee burnout, we also document an incremental distraction effect. Specifically, we find that audit quality on the primary client suffers when team members spend more time during busy season on other concurrent clients. Regarding continuity, we find that …

Prepare For Takeoff: Improving Asset Measurement And Audit Quality With Drone-Enabled Inventory Audit Procedures, Margaret H. Christ, Scott A. Emett, Scott L. Summers, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Auditors increasingly employ technologies to improve audit quality. Using a design science approach, we examine whether using drones and automated counting software can improve audit quality and thereby improve financial reporting. We assess three dimensions of audit quality—efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of audit documentation. We provide evidence that auditors can perform inventory counts with these technologies much more efficiently than they can with manual techniques, decreasing count time in our study from 681 hours to 19 hours. At the same time, auditors can maintain or improve audit effectiveness with these technologies, decreasing error rates in our study from 0.15% to …

Internal Audit Stigma Impairs Internal Audit Outcomes, Marc Eulerich, Joleen Kremin, K. Kelli Saunders, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Prior research finds that the internal audit function (IAF) plays a critical role in organizations, yet there is still a stigma toward the profession. We examine how this stigma affects internal audit outcomes, using three different data sources: survey results from parts of Europe and the United States and an experiment. We find that when practicing internal auditors in parts of Europe and the U.S. believe there is a negative stigma about internal auditing, they report negative work outcomes, including less ability to add value, less influence in the organization, more resistance to implementing their recommendations, and more pressure to …

The Effects Of Pornography On Unethical Behavior In Business, Nathan W. Mecham, Melissa F. Lewis-Western, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Pornography is no longer an activity confined to a small group of individuals or the privacy of one’s home. Rather, it has permeated modern culture, including the work environment. Given the pervasive nature of pornography, we study how viewing pornography affects unethical behavior at work. Using survey data from a sample that approximates a nationally representative sample in terms of demographics, we find a positive correlation between viewing pornography and intended unethical behavior. We then conduct an experiment to provide causal evidence. The experiment confirms the survey—consuming pornography causes individuals to be less ethical. We find that this relationship is …

Anonymous Equity Research, Travis Dyer, Eunjee Kim

Faculty Publications

Crowdsourced financial information platforms often allow content contributors to publish equity research anonymously. This study examines whether investors value or discount information in anonymous equity research. In the short window around research releases, we find that investors’ stock price reaction to anonymous research is muted in comparison to nonanonymous research. Consistent with credibility concerns influencing investor response, we document that this discount to anonymous research dissipates as the monitoring of content contributors intensifies and as authors develop a reputation for high-quality reporting. In addition, we perform a content analysis on the research reports and find that the muted market reaction …

Prior Audit Experience And Cfo Financial Reporting Aggressiveness, Eric R. Condie, Kara M. Obermire, Timothy Seidel, Michael S. Wilkins

Faculty Publications

In this study, we investigate the financial reporting behavior of chief financial officers (CFOs) with significant prior audit experience. Our tests indicate that, on average, CFOs who were former audit managers or partners report less aggressively than CFOs without prior audit experience. Thus, the mindset that auditors develop during their time in public accounting – which should value objective, transparent, and conservative financial reporting – appears to persist when auditors take high-level positions in industry. However, we also find that the reporting behavior of prior-auditor CFOs becomes more aggressive over time as the salience of their audit experience decays. Further, …

Aicpa Proposed Statement On Quality Management Standards: A Firm’S System Of Quality Management (Sqms 1) Overview Of Significant Changes, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Auditing Standards Board

Exposure Drafts, Comment Letters, and Statements of Position

No abstract provided.

Proposed Statement On Quality Management Standards: A Firm’S System Of Quality Management, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Auditing Standards Board

Exposure Drafts, Comment Letters, and Statements of Position

No abstract provided.

Official Release: Revised “Records Requests” Interpretation (Et Sec. 1.400.200) Under The “Acts Discreditable Rule” (Et Sec. 1.400.001), Effective July 31, 2021, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Professional Ethics Division

AICPA Professional Standards

No abstract provided.

Codification Of Statements On Standards For Attestation Engagements, Numbers 18 To 22, As Of January 2021, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

AICPA Professional Standards

No abstract provided.

Surrogation Fundamentals: Measurement And Cognition, Paul Black, Thomas Meservy, William B. Tayler, Jeffrey O. Williams

Faculty Publications

Measurement is a fundamental part of accounting. A primary purpose of measurement is to provide more concrete representations of abstract strategic objectives. A potential consequence of using measures to proxy for less-tangible strategic constructs is the tendency for managers to fall prey to surrogation, losing sight of strategic constructs and behaving as though measures are the constructs of interest. We show that surrogation is a nonconscious process. We also extend understanding of the conditions necessary for surrogation to occur by showing that mere awareness of measurement (even absent compensation) is sufficient to induce surrogation. These findings have implications for any …

Do We Matter? The Attention Policy Makers, Academics, And The General Public Give To Accounting Research, F. Greg Burton, Scott L. Summers, T. Jeffrey Wilks, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

Many question the value of accounting scholarship to society. We compared the attention the general public, policy makers, and academics give to academic accounting research relative to other business disciplines and other more general disciplines (economics, psychology, and other sciences). The results indicate that accounting research receives significantly less attention from the general public than all other disciplines and also performs relatively poorly in receiving policy makers’ attention compared to both economics and finance. Articles in other disciplines’ elite journals cite relatively little of accounting’s elite-level publications, but non-elite journal articles cite accounting research in similar numbers to other disciplines. …

Are Internal Audits Associated With Reductions In Perceived Risk?, Joseph V. Carcello, Marc Eulerich, Adi Masli, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

We examine whether internal auditing provides value to organizations by reducing risk. We compare the changes in risks between audited business units and matched non-audited units within the same company. This design allows us to isolate the importance of an internal audit while holding constant changes in risk due to the organization and time period. Based on ratings from the heads of audited and non-audited units, we find that managers of audited units perceive a greater decline in risk as well as a greater increase in performance compared to managers of non-audited units. We also find that companies that have …

The Effect Of New Accounting Standards On The Performance Of Quantitative Investors*, Travis Dyer, Nicholas Guest, Jia Yin (Elisha) Yu

Faculty Publications

Quantitative investing relies on stable data generating processes and limited human involvement, which could create lower flexibility in the face of changing economic conditions. In this study, we examine quantitative investors’ ability to navigate a common and material change to the financial data generating process: new accounting standards. We find that returns of quantitative mutual funds temporarily decrease following the implementation of standards that change the definition of key accounting variables. The lower performance we document is relative to more traditional “discretionary” funds that rely heavily on human skill and judgment to make day-to-day investment decisions. Our result is predictably …

Earnings Announcement Delays And Implications For The Auditor-Client Relationship, Kimball Chapman, Michael S. Drake, Joseph Schroeder, Timothy Seidel

Faculty Publications

We examine whether delays in the expected release of annual earnings have implications for the future auditor-client relationship. Managers have strong incentives to release earnings on schedule and auditors play an important role in helping their clients avoid costly earnings announcement delays. We find an increased likelihood of subsequent auditor-client realignments after earnings announcement delays. We further find that clients changing auditors realign with audit firms that better meet their earnings announcement timing demands without any evidence of a significant compromise to the reliability of the financial statement numbers in the earnings announcement. Our results help inform regulatory concerns about …

Disclosure Sentiment: Machine Learning Vs Dictionary Methods, Richard Frankel, Jared Jennings, Joshua A. Lee

Faculty Publications

We compare the ability of dictionary-based and machine-learning methods to capture disclosure sentiment at 10-K filing and conference call dates. Like Loughran and McDonald (2011), we use returns to assess sentiment. We find that measures based on machine learning offer a significant improvement in explanatory power over dictionary-based measures. Specifically, machine-learning measures explain returns at 10-K filing dates, while measures based on the Loughran and McDonald dictionary only explain returns at 10-K filing dates during the time period of their study. Moreover, at conference-call dates, machine-learning methods offer an improvement over the Loughran and McDonald dictionary method of a greater …

Accruals Earnings Management Proxies: Prudent Business Decisions Or Earnings Manipulation?, Theodore E. Christensen, Adrienna Huffman, Melissa F. Lewis-Western, Rachel Scott

Faculty Publications

Over the last 5 years, the top accounting journals have published 388 articles that incorporate an empirical proxy for accruals-based earnings management. Researchers use these proxies to measure diverse managerial activities that represent fundamentally different constructs (from beneficial earnings management at one end of the spectrum to earnings manipulation at the other). We present a simple framework that defines the specific construct of “earnings manipulation” and places it within the context of the broader concept of “earnings management.” At the construct level, one distinguishing characteristic of earnings manipulation is that accruals reversals cause future earnings to be lower than earnings …

Factors Affecting The Outcomes Of Legal Claims Against Auditors, Karen D. De Meyst, D. Jordan Lowe, Mark E. Peecher, Jeffrey Pickerd, Andrew Reffett

Faculty Publications

Maksymov, Pickerd, Lowe, Peecher, and Reffett (2020b) draw insights based on interviews with 27 prominent audit litigation attorneys about the factors affecting the initiation of legal claims against auditors and how such factors affect settlement outcomes. We summarize their key findings and discuss important implications for audit practitioners. Specifically, we focus on the key factors that affect plaintiff attorneys’ willingness to pursue legal claims against auditors, including the merits of the claim, size of alleged economic damages, auditors’ ability to pay, and the expected cost to pursue the claim. We also discuss the reasons why most audit disputes settle (as …

The Effects Of High Estimate Uncertainty In Auditor Negligence Litigation*, Jeffrey Pickerd, M. David Piercey

Faculty Publications

We examine how jurors’ negligence judgments and attorneys’ out-of-court settlements are differently impacted by two features of a materially misstated accounting estimate—the amount of estimate uncertainty and whether the misstated account is disaggregated into its own line-item or aggregated with other accounts into a single financial statement line-item. We predict and find that jurors and attorneys react to estimate uncertainty in opposite directions under common conditions. This finding is important because when jurors’ judgments and attorneys’ settlements differ, research into juror judgments alone may not capture a complete picture of auditor liability because the vast majority of audit litigation is …

Determinants And Consequences Of Noncompliance With The 2013 Coso Framework, Kunsu Park, Juan Qin, Timothy Seidel, Jian Zhou

Faculty Publications

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires firms to use a ‘‘suitable framework” as a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. The COSO 1992 framework was the most commonly used suitable framework until it was superseded by the COSO 2013 framework. Because strict compliance with the updated framework was not enforced by regulatory authorities, a nontrivial number of firms did not comply in a timely fashion. We investigate determinants and consequences of noncompliance with the COSO 2013 framework following the supersession of the COSO 1992 framework. We find that noncompliance is positively associated with proxies …

Does Visibility Of An Engagement Partner’S Association With Recent Client Restatements Increase Fee Pressures From Non-Restating Clients?, Wuchun Chi, Ling Lei Lisic, Linda A. Myers, Mikhail Pevzner, Timothy Seidel

Faculty Publications

We examine whether engagement partners who have recently been associated with client restatements experience increased audit fee pressures from their non-restating clients. Using data from the United States (U.S.) and Taiwan, we find evidence of lower audit fees among non-restating companies whose audit engagement partner was recently associated with another client’s restatement. These findings are generally strongest when the partner-associated restatement is more prominent or severe, and in the U.S., when non-restating clients are in the same industry as the restating client. Although we find very limited evidence that fee pressures lead to lower quality audits for these partners’ other …

Perceptions Of Tone At The Top From The Inside: Insights Into Audit Pricing, Jace Garrett, Rani Hoitash, Douglas F. Prawitt

Faculty Publications

Tone at the top plays an important role in entities’ internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) and in auditors’ planning and risk assessment decisions. Using a novel measure based on employee perceptions, we find that strong tone at the top is associated with reduced audit pricing and that this relation holds even for firms that report effective ICFR. This relation is stronger when employees’ tone perceptions are more consistent throughout the organization, when accounting is more complex, and when earnings manipulation risk is higher. We also find that strong tone is negatively associated with the incidence of reported material weaknesses …

Not-For-Profit Entities Industry Developments - 2021; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Aicpa Technical Questions And Answers, 2021, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Guides, Handbooks and Manuals

No abstract provided.

Codification Of Statements On Standards For Accounting And Review Services, Numbers 21-25, As Of January 2021, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

AICPA Professional Standards

No abstract provided.