Accounting Commons^™

Accounting Comparability, Audit Effort And Audit Outcomes, Joseph Hongbo Zhang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The paper investigates the usefulness of accounting comparability for audit engagement. Comparability among peer firms in the same industry reflects the similarity and the relatedness of firms’ operating environment and accounting reporting. From two perspectives of “inherent business risk” and “external information efficiency”, comparability is helpful for auditors to assess client business risk and lowers the cost of information acquisition, processing, and testing. For a given firm, I hypothesize that the availability of information about comparable firms is helpful for auditors by improving audit accuracy and audit efficiency. The comparability proxy is based on a variety of measures including pair-wise …

U.S. Adoption Of International Financial Report Standards And The American C.P.A., Chris Powell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Creating A Fog: Can Plain English Be Used To Mislead Investors?, Scott Collins

CGU Theses & Dissertations

A recent growth in textual analysis research in the accounting and finance literature relies heavily on context to draw conclusions about the readability or sentiment of the text under study. Yet the complexity of the text used in the financial disclosure is also relevant in evaluating readability and sentiment. Experimental results in this dissertation thesis show that a change in annual report complexity is associated with a change in the probability that a subject will comprehend the information being communicated in the disclosure. Specifically, increasing the complexity of an annual report disclosure dampens the probability that a subject will understand …

Venture Capital In Ireland In Comparative Perspective, Frank Barry, Clare O'Mahony, Beata Sax

Articles

This paper assembles the most comprehensive set of data available to offer a comparative perspective on venture capital in Ireland. The paper charts the emergence of the sector and the co-evolution of the demand and supply sides of the market. On the demand side, a flow of investment opportunities emerged – particularly from the indigenous software sector – for which venture capital represented an appropriate financing vehicle. Concurrently, on the supply side, publicly provided funding and other elements of public policy dramatically enhanced its availability. State support to the demand-side has been a multiple of state support to the supply …

A Qualitative Exploration Of Oral Communciations Apprehension, Marann Byrne, Barbara Flood, Dan Shanahan

Articles

Prior research has identified communication apprehension, or fear of communicating, as a major factor which inhibits an individual’s willingness to communicate and his/her capability to develop effective communication skills. While many prior studies have measured oral communication apprehension of students, there has been little qualitative exploration of the phenomenon. This study was conducted by interviewing first-year business and accounting students at a higher education institution in Ireland who were identified as encountering varying levels of oral communication apprehension. The experiences of the students in communicating in different contexts are analysed and the impact of factors such as fear of peer …

Ceos, Cfos, And Accounting Fraud, Douglas M. Boyle, Brian W. Carpenter, Dana Hermanson

Faculty Articles

The article focuses on fraudulent financial reporting, which has been a long-standing concern for the U.S. investors. It discusses the findings of a study that provides valuable insights into the role of chief executive officers (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) in the prevention of such situation. Also provided are key anti-fraud resources including a fraud risk management program, the assessment of fraud risk exposure and prevention techniques.

Three Interdisciplinary Studies On It Outsourcing, Sonia Gantman Vilvovsky

2012

This dissertation provides interdisciplinary insights into the role of client's internal collaborative experience in managing communication during a complex outsourced project, building a quality client-vendor relationship and ultimately achieving success in the project. Each of the three studies in this dissertation identifies a gap in existing scholarship and proposes an interdisciplinary research agenda.

The first essay advances the development of the public sector IT outsourcing (ITO) inquiry by consolidating the existing research into an analytical framework and validating a part of the framework with rich qualitative data collected from collaborative initiatives of public safety agencies ("Public Safety Networks", or PSN). …

Strategy Selection, Surrogation, And Strategic Performance Measurement Systems, Jongwoon Choi, Gary Hecht, William B. Tayler

Faculty Publications

Strategic performance measurement systems operationalize firm strategy with a set of performance measures. A consequence of such alignment is the tendency for managers to lose sight of the strategic construct(s) the measures are intended to represent, and subsequently act as though the measures are the constructs of interest, a phenomenon referred to as surrogation. We investigate how involvement in strategy selection affects managers’ propensity to exhibit surrogation. We predict and find that strategy selection reduces surrogation. Surprisingly, we do not find that engaging in strategy deliberation, a key process underlying strategy selection, reduces surrogation. Thus, managers’ involvement in the actual …

Internal Audit Outsourcing And The Risk Of Misleading Or Fraudulent Financial Reporting: Did Sarbanes-Oxley Get It Wrong?, Douglas F. Prawitt, Nathan Y. Sharp, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) represents a far-reaching legislative attempt to improve the quality of financial reporting in the United States in response to the major accounting frauds of the late 1990s and early 2000s (Klein 2003). A significant change imposed by SOX was to prohibit the outsourcing of internal audit services to firms’ external auditors.1 Competing academic arguments suggest that this ban will either improve or worsen financial reporting quality. The knowledge spillover argument suggests that by both performing the external audit and providing nonaudit services, auditors improve overall audit quality through a deeper understanding of the client …

The Effects Of Preventive And Detective Controls On Employee Performance And Motivation, Margaret H. Christ, Scott A. Emett, Scott L. Summers, David A. Wood

Faculty Publications

We examine how two attributes of preventive and detective controls affect employee performance and employee motivation. Specifically, we examine how the extent to which controls (1) restrict employees’ autonomy, and (2) provide more or less timely feedback impacts employees’ performance and intrinsic motivation. These characteristics are the defining differences between preventive and detective controls in that preventive controls restrict employee autonomy relative to detective controls and preventive controls always provide immediate feedback; whereas, detective controls can provide either immediate feedback or delayed feedback. We conduct an experiment to examine how and why these two types of formal controls impact employees’ …

Real Estate And Construction Industry Developments - 2012/13; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

The Standard Auditor's Report: Preparer, User, And Student Reactions To The Pcaob Concept Release, Don E. Giacomino, Michael D. Akers

Accounting Faculty Research and Publications

Concerns about the usefulness of the Standard Audit Report (SAR) have been expressed by investors and other users of corporate financial statement for several decades. During 2011 the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) reacted to those concerns by issuing Concept Release on Possible Revisions to the PCAOB Standards Related to PCAOB Standards (“Release”). This article provides a description of the SAR, a short history (timetable) of the pressures (surveys) to improve the SAR and events that have led to the eventual Release by the PCAOB. Feedback (comment letters and surveys) from professionals and professional organizations regarding the “Release” are …

Do Corporations Invest Enough In Environmental Responsibility?, Yongtae Kim, Meir Statman

Accounting

Proponents of corporate environmental responsibility argue that corporations shortchange shareholders by investing too little in environmental responsibility. They claim that corporations can improve their financial performance by increasing their investment in environmental responsibility. Opponents of corporate social responsibility argue that corporations shortchange shareholders by investing too much in environmental responsibility. They claim that corporations can improve their financial performance by reducing their investment in environmental responsibility. Yet others claim that corporations serve their shareholders well by investing just enough in social responsibility, not too little and not too much. If so, corporations increase their investment in environmental responsibility when an …

Ifrs Adoption And Enforcement As Antecedents Of Economic Growth, Syed Kashif Raza Zaidi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Globalization of capital markets has increased the need for harmonized accounting standards around the world. International regulators promote the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to increase harmonization. The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of IFRS adoption on the economic growth of adopting countries taking into consideration the level of enforcement within a country. I hypothesize that the adoption of IFRS increases the economic growth of the adopting countries. This effect is to be moderated by the level of enforcement. That is, I hypothesize a positive interaction between enforcement level and IFRS adoption on the …

Standardizing The Presentation Of Financial Data: Does Xbrl's Taxonomy Affect The Investment Performance Of Nonprofessional Investors?, Cassy D. Henderson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is mandated in the United States with the intention of making financial information more useful and easier to analyze. XBRL technology defines financial information, and when implemented as intended, has the ability to standardize the items presented in the financial statements. Standardizing financial information is likely to benefit investors by simplifying the acquisition and integration of the information. Nonprofessional investors have limited knowledge and experience analyzing financial statements and are likely to benefit from a standardized presentation format. Using 167 graduate business students as proxies for nonprofessional investors, the current study examines how standardizing the …

The Impact Of National Culture On Cost Of Equity Capital In Cross-Listed Firms, Kathy F. Otero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the GLOBE cultural dimensions of institutional collectivism, in-group collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and power distance to evaluate the impact of national culture on cost of equity capital for firms cross-listing on two stock exchanges. In addition to evaluating the direct effect of culture on cost of equity capital, the study examines the moderating effect of national culture on impact of the political/regulatory environment and disclosure on cost of equity capital. Limited support was found for both the direct effect and the moderating effect of national culture on cost of equity capital.

Audit And Compilation Report Timeliness In Local Governments: An Empirical Investigation Of Mississippi Governmental Entities That Exceed State Reporting Deadlines, Corey S. Cagle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For governmental audit and compilation reports to be relevant, they must be prepared and made available to the public in a timely manner. The purpose of this study is to identify variables that have an influence on audit and compilation report delay in governments. This research utilizes ordinary-least-squares regression to estimate the effects of several variables of interest on the time it takes to file the audit or compilation report with the Office of the State Auditor. The research also utilizes logistic regression to estimate the effects of several variables of interest on the incidence of filing the audit or …

The Adoption Of Lean Operations And Lean Accounting On The Financial-Performance Measures Of Publicly Traded Companies, Daniel C. Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For fiscal years 2008 through 2010, manufacturers and service providers that adopted lean operations outperformed companies that did not adopt lean operations. Using non-parametric tests and a matched-pairs design, lean companies had greater returns on both net operating assets (RNOA) and total assets (ROA). Lean companies also experienced better operating cash flows and cash adequacy than non-lean companies. The profit margins and financing-assets ratios were marginally better for lean companies than non-lean companies. Several working-capital measures, however, were not significantly different. Lean companies also experienced higher total-inventory turnover and raw-materials inventory turnover than non-lean companies. Although work-in-process inventory turnover did …

Information Systems Procurement Process Risk And Control: Insights From A Public Sector Organization, Gary Pan, Manjari Mehta, Poh Sun Seow

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This case highlights the specific risks and issues that may be encountered in the information systems (IS) procurement process in a country where bribery and corruption are more common. PSO is a large Indian public sector organization involved in energy-related business. Being financially deprived, PSO relied on government funding to build its infrastructures. Besides the funding support, PSO also inherited the bureaucratic structure and the corruption practices. Lately, PSO was involved in several IS infrastructure and applications upgrading projects and wanted to review its IS procurement process. Does PSO understand the process risks in public IS procurement? Does PSO have …

Assessing The Valuation And Risk Implications Of Fair Value Accounting For Liabilities: Evidence From Fas 159'S Reported Gains And Losses, Sung Gon Chung, Gerald Lobo, Kevin Ow Yong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines the implications of fair value liability gains and losses arising from the adoption of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 159 (hereafter FAS 159). We find a positive correspondence between a firm’s FAS 159 fair value liability gains and losses and stock returns. Further analysis indicates that fair value gains and losses from liabilities attributable to the change in a firm’s own credit risk, which are considered counter-intuitive by critics of fair value accounting for liabilities, are also positively related to returns. Lastly, we document that the volatility of earnings that incorporate FAS 159 liability fair value …

An Analytical And Empirical Measure Of The Degree Of Conditional Conservatism, Dan Segal, Jeffrey L. Callen

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

There is a profound gap between models of accounting conservatism and the proxies for conditional conservatism currently used by the empirical literature. Not one of the proxies employed by the empirical literature to date obtains from a rigorous definition of conditional conservatism. In contrast, this study defines conditional conservatism in terms of truncated distributions and derives analytically a nonlinear relation between revisions to returns and earnings news for the conservative firm. This nonlinear relation is shown to be mathematically equivalent to two linear relations conditioned on the firm's degree of conservatism. From these relations, we derive a model-based proxy of …

Aicpa Professional Standards As Of June 1, 2012, Volume 2: U.S. Auditing Standards – Aicpa (Clarified), American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

AICPA Professional Standards

No abstract provided.

Codification Of Statements On Auditing Standards (Including Statements On Standards For Attestation Engagements) Numbers 1 To 121, As Of January 2012, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

AICPA Professional Standards

No abstract provided.

Employee Benefit Plans Industry Developments - 2012; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Employee Benefit Plans With Conforming Changes As Of January 1, 2012; Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Audit Sampling (2012); Audit And Accounting Guide, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Not-For-Profit Entities Industry Developments - 2012; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Investment Companies Industry Developments, 2011/12; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Insurance Industry Developments - 2012/13; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.

Health Care Industry Developments - 2012/13; Audit Risk Alerts, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants (Aicpa)

Industry Guides (AAGs), Risk Alerts, and Checklists

No abstract provided.