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Research Collection School Of Accountancy

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Full-Text Articles in Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics

Active Cds Trading And Managers’ Voluntary Disclosure, Jae Bum Kim, Pervin K. Shroff, Dushyantk Umar Vyas, Regina Wittenberg Moerman Jan 2015

Active Cds Trading And Managers’ Voluntary Disclosure, Jae Bum Kim, Pervin K. Shroff, Dushyantk Umar Vyas, Regina Wittenberg Moerman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Determinants Of Ethical Climate In The Firm:The Role Of Governance Systems And Environmental Uncertainty, John J. Williams, Alfred E. Seaman Dec 2014

Determinants Of Ethical Climate In The Firm:The Role Of Governance Systems And Environmental Uncertainty, John J. Williams, Alfred E. Seaman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Corporate governance mechanisms essentially reside in the control structure/systems of most organizations and provide, theoretically at least, a conduit to support a better organizational ethical climate. This linkage, however, has seldom been portrayed this way in the literature and, correspondingly, there are virtually no empirical studies to offer increased understanding, especially with respect to the professional accountant in practice. Accordingly, this paper empirically assesses the governance mechanisms sanctioned by the International Federation of Accountants (2009) as determinants of an organization’s ethical climate based on evidence from a Canadian sample of CFOs/controllers. The ethics/leadership literature relating to ethical climate provides the …


Societal Trust And Corporate Tax Avoidance, Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo Jun 2014

Societal Trust And Corporate Tax Avoidance, Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using an international sample of firms and a country-level index for societal trust, we study how differences in trust across countries relate to corporate tax avoidance. Consistent with our prediction, we find strong evidence that societal trust is negatively associated with corporate tax avoidance by firms, even after controlling for other determinants such as home country tax system characteristics. We also explore the effects of three country-level institutional characteristics – level of investor protection, disclosure requirement, and tax enforcement – on the relation between societal trust and tax avoidance. We predict and find that the effects of trust on tax …


Active Cds Trading And Managers’ Voluntary Disclosure, Jae Bum Kim, Pervin K. Shroff, Dushyantk Umar Vyas, Regina Wittenber Mar 2014

Active Cds Trading And Managers’ Voluntary Disclosure, Jae Bum Kim, Pervin K. Shroff, Dushyantk Umar Vyas, Regina Wittenber

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Does Corporate Governance Make Financial Reports Better, Or Just Better For Equity Investors?, Dan Segal, Benjamin Segal, Shai Levi Jan 2014

Does Corporate Governance Make Financial Reports Better, Or Just Better For Equity Investors?, Dan Segal, Benjamin Segal, Shai Levi

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Financial reports should provide useful information to both shareholders and creditors, according to U.S. accounting principles. However, directors of corporations have fiduciary duties only toward equity holders, and those fiduciary duties normally do not extend to the interests of creditors. We examine whether this slant in corporate governance biases financial reports in favor of equity investors, and in particular leads to a downward bias in reported debt that can hurt creditors. We focus on firms’ decision to issue structured debt securities that are classified as equity in financial reports and can circumvent debt covenants. We find that when the local …


Zombie Board: Board Tenure And Firm Performance [Summary Of Paper], Sterling Huang Nov 2013

Zombie Board: Board Tenure And Firm Performance [Summary Of Paper], Sterling Huang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In my paper, Zombie Boards: Board Tenure and Firm Performance, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, I empirically investigate how board tenure is related to firm performance and corporate decisions, holding other firm, CEO, and board characteristics constant. I find that board tenure has an inverted U-shaped relation with firm value, and that this curvilinear relation is reflected in M&A performance, financial reporting quality, corporate strategies and innovation, executive compensation, and CEO replacement. The results indicate that, for firms with short-tenured boards, the marginal effect of board learning dominates entrenchment effects, whereas for firms that have long-tenured …


Non-Audit Fees, Institutional Monitoring, And Audit Quality, Chee Yeow Lim, David K. Ding, Charlie Charoenwong Aug 2013

Non-Audit Fees, Institutional Monitoring, And Audit Quality, Chee Yeow Lim, David K. Ding, Charlie Charoenwong

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We posit that the effect of non-audit fees on audit quality is conditional on the extent of institutional monitoring. We suggest that institutional investors have incentives and the ability to monitor financial reporting quality. Because of the reputation concerns and potential litigation exposure, auditors are likely to provide high audit quality, when they also provide non-audit services to clients, particularly when clients are subject to high institutional monitoring. We find evidence that, as non-audit fees increase, audit quality (measured by performance-adjusted discretionary current accruals and earnings-response coefficients) reduces only for clients with low institutional ownership but not for clients with …


Governance Of Financial Reporting, Poh Sun Seow, Gary Pan Aug 2013

Governance Of Financial Reporting, Poh Sun Seow, Gary Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Banks' Survival During The Financial Crisis: The Role Of Regulatory Reporting Quality, Jeffrey Ng, Tjomme O. Rusticus Dec 2012

Banks' Survival During The Financial Crisis: The Role Of Regulatory Reporting Quality, Jeffrey Ng, Tjomme O. Rusticus

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this paper, we investigate the effect of bank transparency before the crisis on bank stability during the financial crisis that erupted in 2008. Using a large sample of private and public commercial banks in the United States, we find that transparency enhances stability. We use two measures of transparency. We develop a new measure of financial reporting transparency based on loan loss provision estimation errors. We corroborate our findings using a second measure based on the incidence of accounting restatements. We show that lower transparency before the crisis is associated with higher non-performing loans and lower profitability at the …


The Effect Of Arthur Andersen's Demise On Clients' Audit Fees And Auditor Conservatism: International Evidence, Bin Srinidhi, Mahmud Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim Sep 2012

The Effect Of Arthur Andersen's Demise On Clients' Audit Fees And Auditor Conservatism: International Evidence, Bin Srinidhi, Mahmud Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using samples from 12 non-U.S.A. countries, we find that following Arthur Andersen's failure in the United States of America, successor Big-N auditors charged an audit fee premium for ex-Andersen clients compared to existing clients and non-Andersen switch-ins. We show that this audit fee premium is not attributable to the Andersen switch-ins having lower prior earnings quality or lower bargaining power than non-Andersen switch-ins. We also show that ex-Andersen clients exhibit higher earnings quality after the switch than do ongoing clients and other switch-ins. These results suggest that the audit fee premium is attributable to auditor conservatism. Furthermore, we find that …


Executive Compensation And Regulation Imposed Governance: Evidence From The California Non-Profit Integrity Act (2004), Tharindra Ranasinghe, S. Khumawala, S. Mishra, S. Dhole Jul 2012

Executive Compensation And Regulation Imposed Governance: Evidence From The California Non-Profit Integrity Act (2004), Tharindra Ranasinghe, S. Khumawala, S. Mishra, S. Dhole

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Disciplinary Effect Of Internal Control Provisions Of Sox On Corporate Governance Structures, Beng Wee Goh Jun 2012

Disciplinary Effect Of Internal Control Provisions Of Sox On Corporate Governance Structures, Beng Wee Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines whether the internal control provisions under the Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) have a disciplining effect on the governance structures of firms. We find that audit committee members and outside directors of firms that disclose material weaknesses (MWs) under Section 302 of SOX are more likely to leave the firms compared to their counterparts in a matched sample of control firms without such weaknesses, and they lose more outside directorships than their counterparts in the control firms. These results are consistent with the notion that the labor market imposes reputational penalties for internal control failures. Although the MW firms …


Client Conservatism And Auditor-Client Contracting, Yoonseok Zang, Chee Yeow Lim, Mark Defond Jun 2012

Client Conservatism And Auditor-Client Contracting, Yoonseok Zang, Chee Yeow Lim, Mark Defond

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Auditors risk costly litigation and loss of reputation when they are associated with clients that engage in substandard financial reporting, and prior research argues that accounting conservatism reduces managements‟ tendency to misreport. Thus, we predict that client conservatism affects auditor-client contracting by reducing auditor litigation and reputation risk. Consistent with our predictions, we find that conservative audit clients are less likely to trigger auditor litigation or issue accounting restatements; and that auditors of conservative clients charge lower audit fees, issue fewer going concern opinions, and resign less frequently. Taken together, these findings are consistent with client accounting conservatism playing an …


Geographic Proximity Between Auditor And Client: How Does It Impact Audit Quality?, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Aini Qiu, Yoonseok Zang May 2012

Geographic Proximity Between Auditor And Client: How Does It Impact Audit Quality?, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Aini Qiu, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Using a large sample of audit client firms, this paper investigates whether and how the geographic proximity between auditor and client affects audit quality proxied by accrual-based earnings quality. We define an auditor as a local auditor (1) if the auditor’s practicing office is located in the same metropolitan statistical area (MSA) as the client's headquarters and (2) if the geographic distance between the two cities where the auditor’s practicing office and the client’s headquarters are located is within 100 kilometers or they are in the same MSA. As predicted, our empirical results are consistent with local auditors providing higher-quality …


Auditor Reporting Under Section 404: The Association Between The Internal Control And Going Concern Audit Opinions, Beng Wee Goh Apr 2012

Auditor Reporting Under Section 404: The Association Between The Internal Control And Going Concern Audit Opinions, Beng Wee Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act introduced integrated audits of internal control over financial reporting and the financial statements. Since the internal control and audit reports are joint products of the audit process, we examine whether the issuance of an internal control material weakness opinion (MWO) influences, other things equal, the issuance of a going concern audit opinion (GCO). Using a sample of financially stressed companies, we find that the issuance of a MWO increases the likelihood of a GCO, suggesting that auditors respond to the uncertainty surrounding a MWO by issuing a GCO. Further, the positive association between MWO …


Guidance Frequency And Guidance Properties: The Effect Of Reputation-Building And Learning-By-Doing, Sanjeev Bhojraj, Robert Libby, Holly I. Yang Apr 2012

Guidance Frequency And Guidance Properties: The Effect Of Reputation-Building And Learning-By-Doing, Sanjeev Bhojraj, Robert Libby, Holly I. Yang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Different firms issue earnings guidance at dramatically different rates. We suggest that frequent guiders more likely represent a type of firm that is attempting to develop a reputation for enhanced disclosures through their guidance issuances. Furthermore, the desire to build a reputation and the opportunities to learn provided by issuing more frequent guidance should translate into frequent guiders providing higher quality guidance than occasional guiders. We examine our hypotheses in three stages. First, we find that guidance frequency is positively correlated with variables associated with reputation with capital market participants and reputation in product and labor markets. Second, our cross-sectional …


Information Systems Procurement Process Risk And Control: Insights From A Public Sector Organization, Gary Pan, Manjari Mehta, Poh Sun Seow Jan 2012

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 …


The Effects Of Political Connections On The Level And Value Of Cash Holdings: International Evidence, Yuanto Kusnadi, K.C. John Wei Jan 2012

The Effects Of Political Connections On The Level And Value Of Cash Holdings: International Evidence, Yuanto Kusnadi, K.C. John Wei

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this paper, we examine the role of political connections on corporate liquidity policies and their consequences in an international setting. We find that managers of politically connected firms have a tendency to hoard more cash than their non-connected counterparts. Moreover, presence of political connections reduces the value of cash holdings. Further analysis reveals that our main findings are more pronounced for firms in emerging markets as well as for firms in countries with weak legal protection of investors and high levels of corruption. Overall, our empirical results corroborate previous findings on the agency cost explanation for corporate cash holdings.


Do Abnormally High Audit Fees Impair Audit Quality?, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang Nov 2010

Do Abnormally High Audit Fees Impair Audit Quality?, Jong-Hag Choi, Jeong-Bon Kim, Yoonseok Zang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

This study examines whether and how audit quality proxied by the magnitude of absolute discretionary accruals is associated with abnormal audit fees, that is, the difference between actual audit fee and the expected, normal level of audit fee. The results of various regressions reveal that the association between the two is asymmetric, depending on the sign of the abnormal audit fee. For observations with negative abnormal audit fees, there is no significant association between audit quality and abnormal audit fee. In contrast, abnormal audit fees are negatively associated with audit quality for observations with positive abnormal audit fees. Our findings …


Corporate Governance And Mindfulness: The Impact Of Management Accounting Systems Change, John Joseph Williams, Alfred E. Seaman Oct 2010

Corporate Governance And Mindfulness: The Impact Of Management Accounting Systems Change, John Joseph Williams, Alfred E. Seaman

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The International Federation of Accountants (2009) argues that a governance structure should go beyond conformance with regulations and equally support a performance dimension that can lead to better outcomes. This paper explores the relationship between these two governance dimensions and the capacity for mindfulness, utilizing organizational theory that describes high reliability organizations. Survey data was obtained from top-level accounting professionals in a sample of 124 Canadian firms. Regression results support the hypothesis that both the conformance and performance dimensions of governance are significant determinants of the capacity for mindfulness. Additional analysis shows that the explanatory power of this relationship persists …


Auditor Reputation And Earnings Management: International Evidence From The Banking Industry, Kanagaretnam Kiridaran, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo Oct 2010

Auditor Reputation And Earnings Management: International Evidence From The Banking Industry, Kanagaretnam Kiridaran, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between auditor reputation and earnings management in banks using a sample of banks from 29 countries. In particular, we examine the implications of two aspects of auditor reputation, auditor type and auditor industry specialization, for earnings management in banks. We find that both auditor type and auditor industry specialization moderate benchmark-beating (loss-avoidance and just-meeting-or-beating prior year’s earnings) behavior in banks. In addition, we find that once auditor type and auditor industry specialization are included in the same tests, only auditor industry specialization has a significant impact on constraining benchmark-beating behavior. In separate tests related to income-increasing …


Does Auditor Tenure Improve Audit Quality? Moderating Effects Of Industry Specialization And Fee Dependence, Chee Yeow Lim, Hun-Tong Tan Sep 2010

Does Auditor Tenure Improve Audit Quality? Moderating Effects Of Industry Specialization And Fee Dependence, Chee Yeow Lim, Hun-Tong Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate whether the relation between auditor tenure and audit quality is conditional on auditor specialization and fee dependence. Although prior studies have investigated the relation between extended auditor-client tenure and audit quality, none has examined how this relation is jointly influenced by both auditor specialization and fee dependence. Our main analyses, using accrual quality as a measure of audit quality, show that firms audited by specialists (vs. non-specialists) have relatively higher audit quality with extended auditor tenure, and that this relation is negatively moderated by auditors’ fee dependence on clients. These results are robust to sensitivity tests, and alternative …


Corporate Governance, Investor Protection, And Auditor Choice In Emerging Markets, Mahmud Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim, Patricia Mui Siang Tan Mar 2010

Corporate Governance, Investor Protection, And Auditor Choice In Emerging Markets, Mahmud Hossain, Chee Yeow Lim, Patricia Mui Siang Tan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this study, we examine the effect of firm-level governance on the firm's choice of an external auditor. Further, we test how the relation between corporate governance and auditor choice may be affected by the strength of legal environment. The results show that firm-level governance scores are positively related to the firm's auditor choice. This association is strengthened by country-level legal protection. Specifically, the positive association between auditor choice and the firm-level governance scores is weaker (stronger) in a low (high) legal environment. These findings are robust after controlling for determinants that were found to be significant in earlier research. …


A Survey Of The Oversight Of External Auditors Through The Lenses Of Audit Committee Chairmen, See Liang Foo, Luck Pia Ng, Kwong Sin Leong, Yang Hoong Pang Aug 2009

A Survey Of The Oversight Of External Auditors Through The Lenses Of Audit Committee Chairmen, See Liang Foo, Luck Pia Ng, Kwong Sin Leong, Yang Hoong Pang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

No abstract provided.


Effects Of Country-Level Legal, Extra-Legal And Political Institutions On Auditing: A Cross-Country Analysis Of The Auditor Specialization Premium, Bin Sirinidhi, Chee Yeow Lim, Mahmud Hossain Jun 2009

Effects Of Country-Level Legal, Extra-Legal And Political Institutions On Auditing: A Cross-Country Analysis Of The Auditor Specialization Premium, Bin Sirinidhi, Chee Yeow Lim, Mahmud Hossain

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this cross-country study of the specialist auditor premium, which spans the US and 12 other countries, we provide evidence that country-level institutional strength increases average audit fees, but reduces the incremental demand for specialist auditors. This finding supports the hypothesis that strong institutions and the demand for specialist knowledge act as substitutes in providing the requisite assurance of financial statements.


Audit Committees, Boards Of Directors, And Remediation Of Material Weaknesses In Internal Control, Beng Wee Goh Jun 2009

Audit Committees, Boards Of Directors, And Remediation Of Material Weaknesses In Internal Control, Beng Wee Goh

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed in 2002 in response to a series ofaccounting improprieties at well-known companies such as Enron and WorldCom.One important aspect of SOX is the internal control requirements. SOX section302 requires that management evaluate the effectiveness of disclosure and controlprocedures, report results of the evaluation, and indicate any “significant changes”in internal controls since the last 10-K or 10-Q report (Securities and ExchangeCommission [SEC] 2002). In addition, SOX section 404 requires that manage-ment’s assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reportingand auditors’ attestation on management’s assessment be included in firms’ 10-Kreports (SEC 2003a). The heightened …


The Association Between Institutional Ownership And Audit Properties, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Lynn Reesc Mar 2009

The Association Between Institutional Ownership And Audit Properties, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Lynn Reesc

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

In this study, we examine how institutional ownership affects the quality and riskiness of the financial statement audit. We hypothesize that institutional investors can influence corporate policy to employ governance mechanisms that reduce their monitoring costs. Our evidence shows that firms are more likely to hire a Big 4 auditor (our proxy for audit quality) when long-term institutional ownership is high, suggesting that long-term institutional investors view high quality audits as a viable means of improving corporate governance while reducing their direct monitoring costs. We find no association between auditor choice and short-term institutional ownership. Next, we find that auditors …


Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo Dec 2008

Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between managerial stock ownership and the firm’s information environment. We focus on three dimensions of the information environment: total, public, and private information precision (Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens 1998). Our results suggest that firms’ total and public information precision are positively related to managerial ownership. In contrast, there is no clear pattern in private information precision across different levels of managerial ownership. We also observe that managerial ownership has a greater impact on the firm’s public information environment after the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, suggesting that the regulation was effective in improving the firms’ …


Managerial Ownership, Corporate Monitoring And Audit Pricing, Soongsoo Han, Julia Higgs, Tony Kang Dec 2008

Managerial Ownership, Corporate Monitoring And Audit Pricing, Soongsoo Han, Julia Higgs, Tony Kang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We study whether managerial ownership and corporate monitoring (board quality and analyst coverage) relate to audit pricing. Managerial ownership has been identified as a fraud risk factor under SAS 99. However, the role of ownership is not clear. Under an alignment view, high levels of stock ownership align management with shareholders. Under an entrenchment view, high levels of ownership may motivate management to be self interested. Corporate monitoring, as measured by analyst coverage and overall board quality (Gomper’s index), are associated with information quality. Audit pricing will be affected to the extent that auditors perceive monitoring as being relevant to …


Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo Aug 2008

Managerial Ownership And Firms' Information Environment, Soongsoo Han, Tony Kang, Gerald Lobo

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We examine the relation between managerial stock ownership and the firm’s information environment. We focus on three dimensions of the information environment: total, public, and private information precision (Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens 1998). Our results suggest that firms’ total and public information precision are positively related to managerial ownership. In contrast, there is no clear pattern in private information precision across different levels of managerial ownership. We also observe that managerial ownership has a greater impact on the firm’s public information environment after the implementation of Regulation Fair Disclosure, suggesting that the regulation was effective in improving the firms’ …