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Companies frequently use Internet Financial Reporting (IFR) to distribute financial and nonfinancial information to stakeholders. Research suggests that companies often distribute information via the web for impression management purposes in order to diffuse potential negative reactions and/or to promote positive reactions to corporate policies and actions. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether web disclosure of environmental information and the presentation format influences the outcomes of litigation awards. Results indicate that even a partial web disclosure of pending environmental sanctions on a company’s financial statement reduces the compensatory and punitive damages that jurors award when shareholders suffer losses as a result of environmental sanctions. The results also indicate that firms using enhanced presentation formats when disclosing environmental information further reduce the amount of damages awarded against them. These results have implications for users and preparers of IFR, and for policy makers weighing mandates for disclosure of nonfinancial information in annual reports.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that one of the more difficult issues faced by accounting students is the understanding and preparation of the statement of cash flows (SCF). This study investigates the impact of different instruction methods for covering the statement on student learning outcomes. Currently, two prominent intermediate-level financial accounting texts cover the SCF primarily in one end-of-text chapter, a massed presentation. The current study argues that the SCF is a topic that is cross-sectional in nature, and is applicable to the textbook material on the accounting transactions that are spread throughout the texts. In accordance with the spacing effect (Dempster, 1988), instruction of SCF material across the major recognition and measurement topic chapters, a spaced presentation format, potentially yields enhanced learning outcomes in comparison to the massed presentation.

Across three semesters of an intermediate-level financial accounting course, the SCF delivery format and coverage were varied in a 1 × 3 between-subjects experiment. The subjects completed an indirect-method SCF preparation task, which I analyzed across the three conditions.

Students learning the SCF presentation of intermediate-level transactions in a spaced presentation earned higher scores on the task compared to those learning the material in a massed format. Furthermore, the students exposed to the massed presentation performed no better than those not instructed on the material.

I base my findings on the results of one assessment of the SCF in one course. Future research should consider various tasks related to the SCF at different course levels and across a variety of instructional techniques.

The results imply that changes to the delivery of SCF material could potentially produce benefits to student learning.

This chapter explores the different ways we share our research. The ways in which we are productive, again, help shape the tools in which productivity occurs. Archiving, storing, and sharing are crucial within the field of digital humanities and offer interesting perspectives on how we as humans share information with one another. The focus in this chapter is also on specific tools like timelines, e-portfolios, and the new generation of presentation applications.

This chapter offers professional advice for educators, particularly those unfamiliar with history-based performance, on how to move their historic character research to the place of actual portrayal. Using a questioning method, the author takes the reader step-by-step through essential elements of historical character portrayal such as character perspective, props, and costuming, placing them within the context of educational objectives and performance logistics. The author discusses in detail differences between portraying a well-known historical figure versus someone connected to that person. She explains the importance of choosing a date for a first-person portrayal, as it defines what the character “knows,” and provides techniques for handling questions beyond the character's date range. For newcomers to researching and portraying historical figures, it is important to consider the following points: What is each character teaching? Where will the presentation be held? Is the presentation solely for students, or does it include peers, parents, or administrators? This chapter addresses these critical questions along with research techniques, performance methods, and practical suggestions for obtaining costumes and props. In addition, the author discusses presentation skills required for an effective presentation, such as voice, mood, and movement. She provides examples from her own professional repertoire showing how techniques such as pace level and articulation work effectively in front of an audience and breaks down the structure of a 20- to 45-minute presentation. The author gives examples of how to be prepared for audience questions and unexpected interruptions during a performance. Finally, she explains the importance of the “story” in historic character presentations to enhance its teaching and presentation effectiveness.

This chapter presents a novel method for using PechaKucha presentations to generate and analyze participant-generated video data. As a data source, participatory video (PV) differs from ethnographic or archival video by relying on participants to tell their own stories. As a presentation technique, PechaKucha produces six-minute-and-forty-second, narrated slideshow presentations. The slideshows or recordings from live PechaKucha presentations are a dense form of PV that is easier to code and analyze than traditional sources of PV. This chapter describes the procedures to capture and analyze PechaKucha-based PV and illustrates considerations for researchers who plan to use PV to gather data.

This paper proposes and tests a model to explain the outcomes of three different information presentation formats. Based on cognitive fit theory, information visualization formats that best fit task characteristics are expected to lead to improved decision-making outcomes. We apply the Judgment and Decision-Making framework (Bonner, 2008) to investigate how certain factors can impact decision quality.

This study tests whether certain production variance presentation formats (percentages, dollar amounts, and schematic faces), task complexity, understanding of the presentation format, motivation, and effort increase the accuracy of a supervisor’s bonus calculation. A total of 281 students and professionals participated in this experiment. Their responses were examined using regression analysis.

Our results indicate that individuals mostly prefer the percentages presentation format and that the use of the percentages presentation format, a lower level of task complexity, and a better understanding of the variance presentation format lead to more accurate calculations in the experimental task.

Our study provides a call for further research on factors that influence the choice of presentation format as a potentially fruitful area for management accounting researchers.

We exhort practicing management accountants to exert direct influence on employees’ decision making through the use of variance presentation formats that fit their tasks and promote understanding.

Our experiment introduced two major innovations: it uses an interactive data visualization approach allowing subjects to select their preferred presentation format; and it focuses on production variances, a topic that has received less attention in the academic managerial accounting literature, but is still very relevant to practitioners.

Activity-based costing (ABC) is presented in accounting textbooks as a costing system that can be used to make valuable managerial decisions. Little experimental or empirical evidence, however, has demonstrated the benefits of ABC under controlled conditions. Similarly, although case studies and business surveys often comment on business environments that appear to favor ABC methods, experimental studies of actual behavioral issues affecting ABCs usage are limited.

This study used an interactive computer simulation, under controlled, laboratory conditions, to test the decision usefulness of ABC information. The effects of presentation format (theory of cognitive fit and decision framing), decision commitment (cognitive dissonance), and their interactions were also examined. ABC information yielded better profitability decisions, requiring no additional decision time. Graphic presentations required less decision time, however, presentation formats did not significantly affect decision quality (simulation profits). Decision commitment beneficially affected profitability decisions, requiring no additional time. Decision commitment was especially influential (helpful) in non-ABC decision environments.

This study examines the impact of different Balanced Scorecard (BSC) formats (table, graph without summary measure, graph with a summary measure) on various decision outcomes: performance ratings, perceived informativeness, and decision efficiency.

Using an original case developed by the researchers, a total of 135 individuals participated in the experiment and rated the performance of carwash managers in two different scenarios: one manager excelled financially but failed to meet targets for all other three BSC perspectives and the other manager had the opposite results.

The evaluators rated managerial performance significantly lower in the graph format compared to a table presentation of the BSC. Performance ratings were significantly higher for the scenario where the manager failed to meet only financial perspective targets but exceeded targets for all other nonfinancial BSC perspectives, contrary to the usual predictions based on the financial measure bias. The evaluators reported that informativeness of the BSC was highest in the table or graph without summary measure formats, and, surprisingly, adding a summary measure to the graph format significantly reduced perceived informativeness compared to the table format. Decision efficiency was better for the graph formats (with or without summary measure) than for the table format.

Ours is the first study to compare tables, graphs with and without a summary measure in the context of managerial performance evaluations and to examine their impact on ratings, informativeness, and efficiency. We developed an original case to test the boundaries of the financial measure bias.

Management has considerable discretion over how to present and announce earnings components that are either unusual or infrequent, but not both (hereafter referred to as special items). In this study, we study the independent and joint effects of the accounting presentation format of, and the level of announcement prominence given to income-decreasing special items on investors’ judgments about the persistence of declining earnings.

Our study uses a 3 (format) × 2 (prominence) between-subjects design. In the experiment, participants act as proxies for nonprofessional investors to assess the persistence of a hypothetical firm’s declining earnings and make investment decisions.

Our results suggest that investors’ judgments are influenced by accounting presentation format and the level of announcement prominence. With respect to format, both classification and disaggregation affect investors’ assessment of earnings persistence. In addition, the degree of prominence given to an income-decreasing special item, albeit self-serving and not audited, introduces additional influence beyond that of accounting presentation format. In particular, we find that announcement prominence has a greater effect when the special item is aggregated with other operating expenses than when the special item is presented under the two other alternatives.

Our study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that presentation format and announcement prominence both have significant impact on investors’ judgments and decisions, and that their effects are interactive. Our results also indicate that future research can possibly gain better insight if it considers the accounting attributes of the special items in addition to their economic attributes.