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Outside influences affect the progression of research in any discipline, including accounting. These influences offer one explanation for problems of replicability or comparability to previous studies, a common concern today. This article examines “who” participates in behavioral experiments and surveys involving accountants. This issue is important because of nontrivial differences in the composition of those in the accounting profession (and thus, participants in subject pools) over approximately 50 years of behavioral accounting research. Based on the theory of individual differences, we explore whether differences in the population of accounting research participants through the years could impact the replication or comparability of current-day research to earlier studies.

Our reading of available literature suggests that our profession has become more diverse in terms of gender and country of origin and that the oft-referenced characteristics of the millennial generation may also represent a distinct difference from previous generations of accountants. We discuss instances in which this changing nature of our profession, and thus our research population, could have implications for current-day behavioral accounting research.

While many business schools use large classes for the sake of efficiency, faculty and students tend to perceive large classes as an impediment to learning. Although class size is a contested issue, research on its impact is inconclusive, mainly focusing on academic performance outcomes such as test scores and does not address classroom dynamics. This study aims to expand the focus of class size research to include classroom dynamics and subjective educational outcomes (e.g. student learning outcomes and satisfaction).

Using Finn et al.’s (2003) theoretical framework and research conducted in introductory business classes, this study investigates how student academic and social engagement influence educational outcomes in different class sizes.

Results highlight the critical role that student involvement and teacher interaction play on student success and student satisfaction regardless of class sizes. In addition, the results indicate that students perceive lower levels of teacher interaction and satisfaction in larger classes.

This study applies Finn’s framework of student engagement in the classroom to understand the dynamics of class size in business education. The results reveal the influential roles of academic and social engagements on educational outcomes. Practical strategies are offered to improve learning outcomes and student satisfaction in large classes.

Decision-making in human resources management is done at both the micro and macro level of organizations. Unfortunately, the decisions at each level are often executed without consideration of the other, and current theory reflects this issue. In response to a call for integration of micro- and macro-level processes by Huselid and Becker (2011), we review the extant literature on strategic human resources and high-performance work systems to provide recommendations for both research and practice. We aimed to contribute to the literature by proposing the incorporation of the situation awareness literature into the high-performance work systems framework to encourage the alignment of human resources efforts. In addition, we provide practical recommendations for integrating situation awareness and strategic decision-making. We discuss a process for the employment of situation awareness in organizations that might not only streamline human resources management but also result in more effective decisions. Additional considerations include implications for teams, boundary conditions (e.g., individual differences), and measurement.

This paper aims to provide discussions of a numerical method for bubbly flows and the interaction between a vortex ring and a bubble plume.

Small bubbles are released into quiescent water from a cylinder tip. They rise under the buoyant force, forming a plume. A vortex ring is launched vertically upward into the bubble plume. The interactions between the vortex ring and the bubble plume are numerically simulated using a semi-Lagrangian–Lagrangian approach composed of a vortex-in-cell method for the fluid phase and a Lagrangian description of the gas phase.

A vortex ring can transport the bubbles surrounding it over a distance significantly depending on the correlative initial position between the bubbles and the core center. The motion of some bubbles is nearly periodic and gradually extinguishes with time. These bubble trajectories are similar to two-dimensional-helix shapes. The vortex is fragmented into multiple regions with high values of Q, the second invariant of velocity gradient tensor, settling at these regional centers. The entrained bubbles excite a growth rate of the vortex ring's azimuthal instability with a formation of the second- and third-harmonic oscillations of modes of 16 and 24, respectively.

A semi-Lagrangian–Lagrangian approach is applied to simulate the interactions between a vortex ring and a bubble plume. The simulations provide the detail features of the interactions.

This chapter investigates the effect of moral reasoning of tax professionals on the aggressiveness of their reporting recommendations. The findings of the study indicate moral reasoning influences the aggressiveness of tax reporting decisions separate from the influence of client pressure. As the level of moral reasoning increases, the aggressiveness of the reporting position is found to0 decrease. Contrary to prior research, client pressure is not related to tax reporting aggressiveness. Failure to observe this relationship may signal a shift in behavior resulting from the intense public and regulatory scrutiny at the time of data collection which was in the immediate aftermath of the Enron scandal.

Prior research suggests both formal and informal norms influence employee behavior. While increased training is a typical recommendation to strengthen formal norms by increasing adherence to organizational codes of conduct, and therefore improve ethical behavior, there is little empirical evidence that code training actually strengthens formal norms or improves ethics-related behavior. Conversely, prior observations of unethical behavior serve as strong indicators of informal norms. These observations may be unknown to management and therefore difficult to moderate using other means, including with training on a code.

We test the impact of prior observations of unethical behavior and training for a code of conduct on intentions to report unethical behavior in the future, as well as possible mediators of these relationships. We find some support that training on the code increases intention to report and strong support for the notion that prior observations of unethical behavior decrease intentions to report. Responsibility to report and norms against whistle-blowing both mediate the prior observation-to-reporting intentions relationship, but not the training-to-reporting intentions relationship. An interesting by-product of training seems to be that, by increasing awareness of unethical behavior, and therefore the salience of prior observation, training may have indirectly influenced intentions in the opposite direction intended.

As in other countries, the accounting profession in the United States strives to hire and keep qualified professionals, who possess the technical competence and ethical character essential to accounting practice. The reputation of the profession has been periodically tarnished by a lack of ethical behavior on the part of some Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). This suggests a misfit between those in the profession and the ethical values toward which the profession strives. When CPAs commit unethical behavior, doing so creates a major problem for the profession. Research has shown that the congruity of personal values with organizational values, person–organization fit (P–O fit), is an important factor in the hiring, socialization, and retention of employees. This research compares the personal values of US accounting students with the personal values of leaders in the accounting profession. Personal value priorities were measured with the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS). The findings indicated that these samples of accounting leaders (N = 193) and accounting students (N = 516) significantly differed in the priority given to 24 of the 36 personal values. This result suggests a lack of P–O fit between accounting students and the accounting profession. These findings have implications for CPA firms in the United States, specifically with regard to hiring ethically “fitting” staff and fostering an ethical culture in accounting firms.

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.