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1 – 10 of over 33000Jane Cote, Claire Kamm Latham and Debra Sanders
This study explores the influence individual characteristics identified in prior research have on ethical choice in a financial reporting task. An action-based, multi-metric…
Abstract
This study explores the influence individual characteristics identified in prior research have on ethical choice in a financial reporting task. An action-based, multi-metric dependent variable is developed to measure ethical reporting choice. Intermediate accounting students participate in the task as part of a curricular assignment in a revenue recognition module. Results demonstrate that several, but not all, individual characteristics found in prior research do influence accounting students’ ethical revenue recognition choices. Specifically, the external locus-of-control, idealism, consequentialist, and Machiavellian characteristics are found to influence ethical reporting choice.
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Jane Cote and Claire Kamm Latham
We present a peer-to-peer teaching approach designed to prepare introductory accounting students to address ethical challenges they will face in the workplace. We describe the…
Abstract
Purpose
We present a peer-to-peer teaching approach designed to prepare introductory accounting students to address ethical challenges they will face in the workplace. We describe the motivation, processes, and resources used, introduce an effectiveness measure and discuss refinements so that other universities may adopt the innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Upper division Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) accounting honor society members, with faculty guidance, create and deliver workshops in the 200-level introductory accounting sequence using the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. GVV provides tools to move from recognition to action when confronted with a values conflict. The BAP members had completed the GVV exercises and casework in their upper division accounting courses. Now as peer coaches, they guide sophomore-level business students through the GVV curriculum to prepare them to act on their values when challenged.
Findings
Post-training perceptions express consistent beliefs that the introductory accounting students’ skills and abilities had improved with the training. Additionally, introductory accounting students’ descriptions of how they would address values conflicts based on what they learned in the training reflects development of personalized specific approaches.
Social implications
GVV provides students with an action-based ethics toolkit to build upon as they move forward academically and professionally. The peer-to-peer innovation builds stronger mentor and mentee ties and introduces the business program’s ethical culture to sophomore-level business students.
Originality/value
The innovation won the 2014 Beta Alpha Psi Ethics Award sponsored by Grant Thornton and reflects the first use of a peer-to-peer approach with GVV in a university setting.
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Mouna Ben Rejeb, Safwan Alzyadat and Nozha Merzki
This study investigates and compares the earnings management strategies of financially distressed and non-distressed banks.
Abstract
Purpose
This study investigates and compares the earnings management strategies of financially distressed and non-distressed banks.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a regression analysis, this study examines a sample of banks operating in the MENA region. We focus on real earnings management strategies via commission and fee income (CF) and accrual-based earnings management strategies via loan loss provisions (LLP). A subsample analysis was performed, lagged dependent variables and additional control variables were included as a robustness check.
Findings
The findings consistently reveal a more extensive use of real earnings management strategies via CF among distressed banks than among non-distressed ones. Specifically, banks smooth their income via CF under distress conditions. However, LLP-based earnings management strategies are only implemented in healthy banks. These behaviors persist in banks that operate under different monitoring systems and institutional settings.
Research limitations/implications
This study marks its entry into the literature debate on accounting and non-accounting decisions that influence bank financial reporting. It argues that, in the presence of financial difficulties, bank managers define earnings management strategies based on the probability of being detected, rather than looking at their costs.
Practical implications
From a prudential perspective, the findings suggest the need for prudential rules to supervise the reporting of CF income associated with high fees or discount incentives used intentionally by bank managers to convince clients to delay or accelerate payments and, consequently, affect reported earnings.
Originality/value
This study adds to the literature by investigating the effect of bank financial distress on both real and accrual-based earnings management to provide a comprehensive analysis of bank earnings management strategies in the presence of financial difficulties.
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Rex Marshall, Malcolm Smith and Robert Armstrong
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of the tax agent as a preparer of tax returns and provider of professional tax advice under a system based on self‐assessment…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of the tax agent as a preparer of tax returns and provider of professional tax advice under a system based on self‐assessment principles. It recognises the competing pressures under which tax agents attempt to discharge their professional responsibilities, and examines the implications for potentially unethical behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a mail survey of tax professionals in Western Australia. Respondents are presented with realistic tax return scenarios, in which the demands of the client are varied according to the risk of audit, the severity of tax law and the materiality of dollar amounts involved.
Findings
The findings suggest that the severity of tax law violation is an important factor in ethical decision‐making, but that audit risk and the amounts involved are not.
Research limitations/implications
The lack of support for audit risk as an influential variable is an important outcome, because policy makers have traditionally proceeded on the basis that increases in audit probabilities will reduce the likelihood of taxpayers adopting aggressive tax reporting positions. However, since the findings are based on an Australian sample, care must be taken in generalizing these findings elsewhere.
Practical implications
The implications are important in that alternative enforcement and compliance strategies must be considered by tax administrators.
Originality/value
The paper extends empirical research into taxpayer attitudes to those of the preparers of tax returns. The findings will be of relevance both to tax agents and to tax administrators.
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We explored whether employees in smaller, younger firms would be more ethically compromised, and whether employee identification moderates this relationship.We collected survey…
Abstract
We explored whether employees in smaller, younger firms would be more ethically compromised, and whether employee identification moderates this relationship.We collected survey data from 154 working professionals enrolled in an MBA program in the southeastern United States. We found that employees of smaller, younger firms selected more compromised ethical choices than employees of larger, older firms. Contrary to our expectations, employee identification had no effect in smaller, younger, firms, yet in larger, older firms, identification actually reduced ethical compliance, suggesting that there is not a simple relationship between identification and ethical compliance.
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Simone Domenico Scagnelli, Laura Corazza and Maurizio Cisi
Nowadays, social and environmental reporting is approached in different ways, paths and fields by either large-, small-, or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, as…
Abstract
Purpose
Nowadays, social and environmental reporting is approached in different ways, paths and fields by either large-, small-, or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, as demonstrated by previous scholars, SMEs have been critically discussed because they provide lack of proper sustainability disclosure. The fact that the predominant approach of SMEs toward social responsibility is often “sunken” and not “explicit” can drive the lack of disclosure. Furthermore, unstructured communication practices create difficulties in measuring and reporting the sustainability reporting phenomenon in SMEs. The aim of our study is to shed light on the activity of SMEs’ sustainability reporting and disclosure, specifically, by addressing the variables that influence the choice of the guidelines used to prepare sustainability reports.
Design/methodology/approach
The research has been carried out by using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. The empirical evidence is based on all the Italian companies, mostly SMEs, that were certified in 2011 as having adopted both environmental (i.e., ISO14001 or EMAS) and social (i.e., SA8000) management systems. A multivariate linear regression model has been developed to address the influence of several variables (i.e., financial performance, size, time after achievement of the certifications, group/conglomerate control, etc.) on the guidelines’ choice for preparing sustainability reports.
Findings
Our findings demonstrate that SMEs prefer to use simple guidelines such as those guidelines that are mandatory under management system certifications. However, the sustainability disclosure driven by the adoption of international guidelines may be more complex if the SME is controlled within a group of companies or if a significant amount of time has passed since the certification date. As such, we developed a taxonomy of their different behavioral drivers according to a legitimacy theory approach.
Research limitations
At this stage, our study didn’t focus on the contents’ quality of the disclosure and reporting practices adopted by SMEs, which is obviously a worthwhile and important area for further research. Furthermore, the analysis took into account the impact of a number of easily accessible variables; therefore, it can be extended to investigate the effect on disclosure of other relevant variables (i.e., nature of the board of directors, age, and industrial sector in which the company operates) as well as contexts prevailing in other countries.
Practical implications
The study represents an important contribution for understanding how and why managers might use externally focused disclosure on social and environmental issues to benefit the company’s legitimacy.
Social implications
Our study provides interesting insights for policy makers who require social or environmental certification when calling for tenders or specific EU contracts, in order to put aside the “brand” or “symbol” and really focus on the disclosed practices.
Originality/value
Previous studies have provided only a few evidence about reporting practices and related influencing features of SMEs’ sustainability actions. As such, the study wishes to make a significant contribution to the existing literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by providing relevant insights about the factors which influence the guidelines used by SMEs in preparing their sustainability reports.
Therèse de Groot and Arco van de Ven
The purpose of this paper is to use qualitative research findings to describe and analyze the use of a new teaching approach for a better understanding of earnings management.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use qualitative research findings to describe and analyze the use of a new teaching approach for a better understanding of earnings management.
Design/methodology/approach
Three classroom workshop designs with finance professionals were performed as an experiment to discuss the underlying assumptions of mainstream earnings management research. The outcome of the experiment is analyzed and serves as a basis for reflection on the new teaching approach.
Findings
The teaching experiment revealed the value to participants in discussing the complexity of the accounting choice process. The workshops provided insights into the wide range of accounting choices that finance professionals are confronted with and into the differences in perception of the participants relating to the accounting choices to be made. These insights contradict the assumptions of a “neutral reporting process” and solely “purposeful interventions” used in mainstream earnings management research. Analyzing the elements of the different workshop settings in relation to the outcome of the discussion identified strengths and weaknesses of each setting and generated ideas for further development of the teaching approach.
Practical implications
This research note adds to the understanding on how qualitative research can be used in teaching and shows that it is also coherent with using teaching as a site for qualitative research.
Originality/value
The discussions relating to the limitations of mainstream accounting research are predominantly of a general nature. This research note takes these discussions into consideration by exploring the subject of earnings management, offering an alternative teaching approach.
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David Cosgrave and Michele O'Dwyer
This study explores the millennial perceptions of cause-related marketing (CRM) in international markets through the lens of an ethical continuum. Literature gaps exist in our…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the millennial perceptions of cause-related marketing (CRM) in international markets through the lens of an ethical continuum. Literature gaps exist in our understanding of cause-related marketing, ethics and millennials in an international context, with few studies offering insights into successful CRM campaigns in developed vs developing countries. Previous studies have yielded differing responses based on culture, sociodemographic and consumer perceptions.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory qualitative research method was adopted to build the theory necessary to address this research gap. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 155 undergraduate and postgraduate students representing 17 nationalities. Interviews were conducted in two regions (Ireland and United Arab Emirates) representing developed and developing markets.
Findings
Discrepancies exist between millennial consumers when it comes to ethical self-reporting, perceptions of CRM initiatives, choice criteria of CRM offers and purchase intentions. Findings also suggest that there is a relationship between the religious and ethical beliefs of millennials in certain regions. Gender showed no significant differences in perceptions of CRM.
Originality/value
This study examines millennial perceptions of CRM from multiple nationalities in developed vs developing markets. It introduces the ethical continuum in international CRM as a lens to examine perceptions of millennial consumers. The study identifies that millennials should not be treated as a homogenous group, suggesting different choice criteria of millennial consumers based on their ethical standards. It demonstrates emerging support for the role of religion in successful adoption of CRM.
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