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The purpose of this inductive, exploratory study is to provide foundational insights into the role of management control in dealing with dysfunctional behaviour within accounting schools in changing environment of Australian universities.

Evidence is drawn from semi-structured interviews with 28 current or previous heads of school, research deans, deans of teaching and learning, school managers and human resource managers from 16 Australian universities and interpreted from the theoretical perspective of rational choice theory.

The findings suggest the incidence of a range of dysfunctional behaviours occurring in accounting schools. Even when such behaviours are limited in frequency, their consequences are nevertheless found to have far-ranging and potentially destructive change impacts for both individuals and the university. Formal management control systems designed to address such behaviours are perceived to be largely ineffective in identifying, managing, eliminating or even mitigating the consequences of such dysfunctionality. Instead, it is informal control processes that are preferred in dealing with dysfunctionality.

This study enhances our understanding of the role of management control in dealing with dysfunctional behaviour within university accounting schools, and points not only to the difference between the design and use of management controls but also to the implications of this disconnect between the underlying intent of control design and their actual use in the context of environments that are subject to significant change.

The paper considers the evolution of a tailored university induction program over time to establish the change in the nature and content of the program.

The induction program is pitched against the conceptual backdrop of academic norms and conventions, language, integration and the role of mentoring. As an exploratory study of a unique and complex induction program it reports on the basis of discourse analysis over time (from 2009 to 2012).

The paper establishes that consideration of feedback by students, university staff (academic and professional) and external stakeholders has allowed the program to morph to a balanced content of academic; social; and socio-academic integration activities.

The paper confirms the framework proposed by Zepke and Leach (2005) and renders a further level of validity to the model when applied in a cross-cultural higher education context.

Practical implications include the value of involving stakeholders as source of knowledge for considering continuous improvements and the notion that a remedial approach to integration of international students proves to be ineffective.

Articulation pathways for Chinese university students into Australian universities create a unique set of expectations and challenges to both the students and the Australian universities. A tailor made induction program is a crucial step in addressing these and requires continuous improvement to retain relevance and optimise impact and resources.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a cross‐sectional survey of Chinese auditors that examines their views about independence and client relationship issues associated with the current Code of Professional Conduct. The paper also compares the findings with attitudes about the perceived ethical environment of their workplaces.

During late 2006, 578 useable questionnaires were obtained from members of the Chinese Institute of Public Accountants registered with four regional chapters. The empirical research was exploratory and involved the construction of a scale for measuring attitudes towards independence issues and a modified version of the Corporate Ethical Values scale.

It was found that auditors clearly identify with the importance of codes of practice and indicate that their views are significantly affected by observations about the ethical climates associated with their immediate workplaces. Codes of practice are seen to be relevant the greater the concern about the ethicality of their workplaces, although attitudes were tempered when client relationship matters are considered, suggesting that some degree of cultural tolerance of questionable activities is inevitable, and that tolerance increases with age.

The paper is the first to directly access Chinese practitioners in order to measure attitudes towards western‐based standards of practice in association with their workplace conditions. It is a sizable survey, providing useful insights into how practitioners are coping with the demands of their profession in China.

Managers may “creatively” choose accounting methods in order to smooth income figures. Using a sample of 1,094 transportation firm‐year observations before and throughout the global financial crisis (GFC) period of 2006‐2009 in seven Asian countries, the purpose of this study is to investigate whether managers' smooth reported earnings to meet the benchmark target of last year's earnings figure.

Following previous research (e.g.,Burgstahler and Dichev; Degeorge, Patel, and Zeckhauser; Holland and Ramsay; Burgstahler and Eames; Daske, Gebhardt, and McLeay; Gore, Pope, and Singh; Charoenwong and Jiraporn), this study uses an earnings benchmark of sustaining last year's performance as the key indicator of earnings management.

The empirical evidence reveals that corporate managers seem to opportunistically smooth income to beat earnings targets. The results also show that the AuditQuality, EcoCrisis and Size are not explanatory for the smoothing behavior of the above target firms. However, the independent variables EcoCrisis and Size are predictors for the smoothing behavior of the sample firms that engage in income‐increasing earnings management. The coefficient on EcoCrisis is negative and significantly (at p=0.001) related to the earnings management measure, suggesting that during a period of economic stress, transportation firm managers engage in less aggressive income‐increasing discretionary accruals strategy. Furthermore, the findings confirm that large size firms exhibit less aggressive income‐increasing earnings management behavior. Specifically, the coefficient on Size is negative and moderately significant (p=0.056) associated with earnings management measure.

This study strongly supports the political costs hypothesis which argues that larger firms are subject to more public scrutiny and political actions therein exhibiting less aggressive income‐increasing earnings management behavior. The authors further note a “big bath” phenomenon during the GFC period suggesting that corporate managers manipulate their reported earnings downward to make poor results even worse in the current financial period, artificially enhancing future year's earnings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of independent directors and ownership structure on voluntary disclosures of Vietnamese listed firms.

Year‐ending 2008 annual report disclosures of 45 Vietnamese listed firms are analyzed. Voluntary disclosure is measured using a Vietnamese Disclosure Index adapted from prior literature. Descriptive and inferential statistics (T‐test, analysis of variance, multiple regressions (ordinary least squares)) are employed to generate empirical insights.

The results indicate that the level of voluntary disclosure among Vietnamese listed firms is relatively low (24.23 per cent). There are higher levels of disclosure relating to director and senior management details but far lower in regards to social issues. State ownership and managerial ownership are negatively and positively related to the extent of voluntary disclosure respectively. Moreover, bigger firms are found to be positively associated with voluntary disclosure.

The results of this study are limited to one year – 2008 – and thus, could be biased as disclosures can change over time.

Vietnamese regulators should focus on strengthening the regulations governing the level of corporate communication in firms with high state ownership as well as encouraging more disclosure of non‐financial information to strengthen its market information transparency.

This study is one of the first examining the level of corporate voluntary disclosure practices among Vietnamese listed firms. Evidence from this study extends the existing voluntary disclosure literature on emerging economies whilst providing valuable insights to Vietnamese policy makers in the process of developing and improving its financial reporting regulatory framework.

The purpose of this study is to determine how Western business practitioners, specifically Australian accounting professionals, identify with the Chinese value concept of guanxi and the impact of their perceptions of guanxi on their ethical decision-making. This objective is predicated by a belief that aspects of guanxi are similar to the Western concepts of social networking and would be identified by practitioners as an organizational process providing positive benefits to those associated with its application. Further, it is anticipated that concepts of guanxi influence the way Australian accountants form ethical judgements and intentions, precursors to acceptable moral behaviour.

A cross-sectional questionnaire based on a survey of 111 usable Australian accounting professionals was completed during 2012. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate each construct of guanxi before a path analysis was performed.

Australian accounting professionals associate well with the favour-seeking aspects of guanxi, suggesting an affiliation with Western concepts of social networking. Both groups (i.e. public accountants and private accountants) reject rent-seeking guanxi as clearly unethical. Rent-seeking guanxi is seen to directly influence ethical judgement and intention; however, their favour-seeking guanxi attitudes do not influence ethical judgement or intention, regardless of employment type. Public and private accountants apply guanxi in a differential manner when determining moral intention. Public accountants are viewed as acting spontaneously without adequately considering the consequences (via the judgement phase), which appears to be a function of the nature of their personal association with the case study applied in this research.

The research provides evidence that Australian accounting professionals relate to favour-seeking guanxi as representative of a broader notion of social networking. In this context, the guanxi instrument appears to be amenable to cross-cultural evaluations of group behaviour. Significant differences of opinion exist compared to the prior Chinese studies when unethical practices are considered. The guanxi instrument proves to be a useful tool when examining the group interactions involving Western professionals and also helps establish differences in moral constructions based on employment types.