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Business failures during the economic recession of 2008‐2010 years were unusually high in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to build a new model to predict business failure, using mostly cash flow statement based measures as predictor variables and discriminant analysis technique.

The authors' data matrix consisted of 100 firms and seven predictor variables. A total of 50 “failed” firms were matched with 50 non‐failed firms according to Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code and size. Financial statement data for the year prior to failed year were pulled from COMPUSTAT database. Seven predictor variables were selected, namely Operating cash flow divided by current liabilities, Cash flow coverage of interest, Operating cash flow margin, Operating cash flow return on total assets, Earning quality, Quick ratio and Three‐year sales growth. The SPSS‐19 software was used to perform discriminant analysis (DA).

The DA model classified 83.3 percent of original grouped cases correctly. The cross‐validated approach (jackknife or leave‐one‐out method) correctly classified 79.5 percent of cases. The chi‐square test of Wilks' lambda was significant at 0.000 level which means the model as a whole performed very well in predicting business failure.

This study is unique in many respects. First, the sample companies are not industry specific. They come from more than 20 different two‐digit SIC codes, which means the authors' model is very generic in nature. Second, the seven predictor variables (financial ratios) they selected are logically justified; these are not an outcome of step‐wise procedure. Third, most of the predictor variables use operating cash flow information from the cash flow statement. Fourth, all the failed firms in the authors' test sample are from the most recent, 2008‐2010, period.

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 presents an approach to teaching bond liabilities and investments in the typical undergraduate Intermediate Accounting II course, using the statement of cash flows, including both indirect and direct approaches. From the perspectives of the issuer and holder, emphasis is placed on journal entries reflecting interest accruals, amortization of discounts and premiums, and early extinguishment of such financial instruments, as well as the treatments of such entries in the statement of cash flows. Students are expected to explain the reasons underlying such treatments. The results of this innovation suggest that students enhance their understanding of accounting for bonds and the statement of cash flows by application of this approach.

This paper aims to examine the effect of dividend regulation on cost stickiness (i.e. the asymmetric change in firm expense between sales increase and sales decrease) and explore the underlying mechanism.

Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the Guideline for Dividend Policy of Listed Companies issued by the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) in 2013, the authors employ a difference-in-difference model to investigate the impact of dividend regulation on cost stickiness.

The authors find that the cost stickiness of treatment group firms has decreased significantly when compared with control group firms after the dividend regulation. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced among firms in lower marketization regions, in lower competition industries and those with less analyst coverage and lower cash flow levels. Further analyses show that dividend regulation reduces the cost stickiness of firms by mitigating agency problems. Finally, the conclusion holds after several robust tests, including controlling for firm fixed effect, propensity score matching (PSM), placebo test and reconstruction of expense variable.

This paper confirms that dividend regulation serves an important role in corporate governance, which reduces firms' agency costs and thereby decreases cost stickiness. The conclusions shed light on the dividend policies of listed companies and capital market regulation in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between a firm's propensity to lease and several firm characteristics: tax position, financial constraint, ownership structure, growth, and size.

Controlling for industry, total lease share, operating and capital lease share ratios, obtained using an income statement approach, are regressed on a trichotomous tax variable, a dichotomous cash flow coverage ratio variable, debt over fixed assets, ownership concentration, market to book value of shares and the natural log of sales.

Total lease share increases with leverage, tax position and growth; it decreases with cash flow coverage, ownership concentration and firm size. Results for operating lease share are similar to those for total lease share. In contrast, capital lease share decreases with tax position and increases with ownership concentration and size.

The results suggest that leasing offers added debt capacity and increases in financially constrained firms. Firms that pay high taxes seem to place more value on the constant stream of tax deductions from the rental payments than on deductions from decreasing interest costs and amortization. Finally, highly concentrated Canadian firms may use less leasing because they are more family‐controlled.

The literature offers mixed reasons for firms' decisions to lease or purchase assets. This study provides further evidence in a rich setting. In 2001, the Canadian tax authorities changed the tax treatment of leases, thus providing an opportunity to validate prior results on the impact of taxes on leasing. By including two different measures of financial constraint, this study disentangles the substitution and the added debt capacity hypotheses.

Provides a comprehensive, critical review of failure prediction with cash flow information since Beaver (1966); and tabulates the methods and cash flow variables used, and the results produced. Describes the literature as “inconsistent and inconclusive” and discusses possible reasons why, e.g. the measurement and diversity of cash flows, lack of model validation, multicollinearity etc. Points out the importance of cash to solvency and dividend payouts; and the limitations it places on creative accounting. Summarizes the reasons for previous inconsistencies and considers possibilities for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of analysts' operating cash flow forecasts of Australian listed firms and whether or not such forecasts improve the usefulness of earnings and predictive ability of current cash flows.

The authors used a large sample of firms for which both cash flows and earnings forecasts were available over a period between 1993 and 2003, and employed both univariate and logistic regression analyses.

It was found that analysts forecast both operating cash flows and earnings when the firms are more complex in operations and when the size of the firm is relatively small. Further, it was found that cash flow forecasts improve the usefulness of earnings and predictive ability of current cash flows.

This study contributes to current understanding of analysts' forecast behaviour regarding dissemination of operating cash flow information and usefulness of cash flow forecasts.

Many businesses are faced with liquidity problems for various reasons. This is especially true for small businesses, since most must operate with fewer sources of both short and long term financing than larger firms. Where less financing is available, more assets must be held in liquid form to meet daily transactions and emergency requirements. Larger firms, that have better access to both the money and capital markets, can afford to hold fewer current assets and meet cash requirements just as quickly and efficiently through borrowing.

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the fact that the certainty equivalent coefficient net present value criterion, CEC(NPV), in disregarding a fundamental requirement for the calculation of cash flows for purposes of discounted cash flow analysis, invalidates this capital budgeting criterion from the perspective of sound research methodology. The paper also investigates the impact of the UK Companies Act of 2006, the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002, and important reviews such as the Turner Review of 2009, the Walker Review of 2009, and the Review of the Combined Code of 2009 on this operationally invalid capital budgeting criterion, as well as its impact on the process of financial managerial decision making.

The CEC(NPV) as a discounted cash flow capital budgeting criterion was examined from the perspective of the axioms of cash flow estimation as well as from the definition of the cost of capital in order to ascertain the contribution of this criterion to financial management. The relevant sections of the UK Companies Act of 2006, the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002, the Turner Review of 2009, the Walker Review of 2009, and the Review of the Combined Code of 2009 were studied in order to establish whether the CEC(NPV) was able to satisfy the requirements of this legislation and these important reviews.

The CEC(NPV) is construct invalid and does not measure what it purports to measure: it over‐states financial viability. As a consequence, it does not meet the requirements of sound research methodology and therefore is at odds with the UK Companies Act of 2006, the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002, and falls foul of the Turner Review of 2009, the Walker Review of 2009, the 2009 Review of the Combined Code issued by the Financial Reporting Council. As such it cannot be endorsed by the Financial Services Authority.

The paper usefully shows that the CEC(NPV) denies financial managers application of Fisherian analysis for resolving conflicts in the rankings of mutually exclusive projects, and, the comparison of project cost of capital with their respective internal rates of return. Comparisons of the internal rate of return, not with the risk‐free rate (that is assumed to be a constant and which exhibits minimal variability in comparison with the cost of capital), but with the cost of capital cost of capital, are a sine qua non for managerial decision making, especially capital budgeting.