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This study seeks to further an understanding of taxpayer characteristics. The study presents a multidimensional tax locus of control (LOC) instrument developed from the starting point of a validated LOC instrument from the health-care field. Data collected using the instrument indicate that older taxpayers are more likely to have an external LOC in tax situations, indicated by a greater propensity to defer decision-making to a tax professional, defined as a “powerful other.” As the U.S. population is aging, this information may be helpful to tax practitioners when advising older clients on tax issues and researchers exploring issues related to aging. An additional finding is that taxpayers with more business exposure are less likely to defer to a tax professional. Gender and education play roles in an individual's internal tax LOC (TaxLOC) beliefs.

This study aims to demonstrate how pressures (incentives) in the audit environment can lower audit quality because of a breakdown between professionally skeptical (PS) judgment (risk assessment) and PS action (testing).

The authors used a Qualtrics-based experiment with attitude change as a proxy measure of cognitive dissonance (CD). The authors analyze the results using a one-way independent between-group ANOVA with post hoc tests and t-tests.

The authors find that auditors experience CD when they fail to take appropriate high PS action (audit tests) that are in line with high PS judgment (risk assessments). The motivational force to reduce CD drives auditors to revise their assessments upward (rank higher), lower diagnostic audit tests (PS actions) and lower risk assessments (PS judgments). This leads to lower overall professional skepticism, and hence lower audit quality.

This investigation provides an empirical investigation of Nelson’s (2009) model of professional skepticism and demonstrates a specific mechanism for how incentives in the audit environment lower audit quality. Based on the findings, treatments to enhance audit quality can benefit by strengthening the critical link between PS judgments (risk assessments) and PS actions (audit tests).

This paper aims to investigate whether audit committee ownership (consisting of both equity holdings and option holdings) is associated with the cost of equity capital.

This paper uses regression analysis to examine the association between audit committee ownership and the cost of equity capital. The data set consists of 2,825 firm-year observations for companies listed on the ASX between 2001 and 2015. This paper also conducts tests to explore the mediating effects of financial reporting quality, firm performance and the risk of reporting problems, on the relation between audit committee ownership and cost of equity capital.

The analyses reveal that audit committee ownership reduces the firm’s cost of equity and, thereby, support the incentive alignment view. However, the association is driven primarily by audit committee equity ownership, with option holdings having an insignificant effect. This paper also finds that firm performance mediates the association between audit committee ownership and the cost of equity capital.

Findings of the existing corporate governance research relating to the cost of equity capital and audit committee ownership remain sparse in the context of “comply-or-explain” types of regulatory environment, like that of Australia. The findings indicate that principle-based discretionary governance arrangements, e.g. compensating audit committee members with company equity, may bring benefits to firms in terms of cheaper financing. Regulators, scholars and practitioners are invited to consider further the comprehensive implications of the structure and transparency of audit committee incentives on the effective functioning of security markets.

The effects of audit committee ownership on the cost of equity capital are an issue of direct economic consequence for equity investors. The main finding of this study, namely, that a firm with higher audit committee share ownership is likely to benefit from a lower cost of equity capital, therefore adds value to the limited extant literature.

This paper aims to describe what baby boomer family business owners in New Zealand perceive the implications of earthquakes on their business and succession planning. The current study focuses on how some businesses have survived significant uncontrollable contingencies, for instance, natural disasters. This paper also documents the insight of what baby boomer family business owners value in their succession planning.

Qualitative method was undertaken, comprising face-to-face in-depth interviews with 18 participants, who are baby boomers family business owners in New Zealand.

Driven by the unique social and political conditions in New Zealand, baby boomer family business owner’s revealed unique mind-sets and motivations that are oriented in their family value and/or the sense of self-fulfillment. As a result, they are able to adapt to uncertainties and reflect on their adaptability. Although approaching their retirement age and survived earthquakes, most interviewees neither have any urgency to establish or execute succession plans nor are they prepared for contingencies. A profitable trade sale has been identified as a preferred exit strategy.

The current study is aimed to fill in the gap of exploring how some baby boomers’ family businesses in New Zealand survived deadly earthquakes and how they approach their own succession planning.

It is hoped that this research will contribute to the well-being of family businesses and be of value to practitioners who provide professional advises for family firms and those who aspire to a career in family businesses. This paper also aims to shed light on the implication of aging population and government policies on family businesses. The findings are, therefore, useful for academics, professional consultants, advisors and regulators.

However, natural disasters, social unrest and many uncontrollable events disrupt business operations and can be viewed as uncontrollable contingencies. Ageing population and generation-based similarities are also common to many countries and communities. Nonetheless, the interdisciplinary research on ageing population is scant in the context of financial planning, management accounting or taxation at the firm level. This paper also calls for more in-depth exploration on the implications of demographical factors on the organisations and their success or demise.

Purpose — This chapter reviews the key findings of the reported research in this volume using the wider international literatures on transport and social exclusion as its conceptual framework. It begins by briefly summarising the research and policy context in which the study is set. It then provides an overview of major conceptual, theoretical and methodological advancements relevant to this area over the last 10 years in order to evaluate the study’s contribution to research, policy and practice internationally.

Methodology — The conceptual framework for this chapter is based on a comprehensive review of the international literatures on transport and social exclusion. After a brief introduction to these, it outlines key conceptual, theoretical and methodological advancements as they pertain to transport-related social exclusion. In addition, it evaluates the scope and implications of the methodological approach with particular reference to contemporary scholarly debates in this area. The chapter subsequently explores the applicability of the research in policy and practice, both inside and outside the Australian context.

Findings — The chapter concludes that the research has made a significant contribution to conceptual, theoretical and methodological developments within the area of transport-related exclusion, and has helped move forward related debates within policy circles. Opportunities for further research are also identified.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify how brand meaning evolves as an emergent property through the cocreation processes of stakeholders on multiple levels of a brand's service ecosystem. This provides new insight into the intersection between brands, consumers and society, and emphasizes the institutionally situated nature of brand meaning cocreation processes. It further lays a holistic foundation for a much-needed discussion on purpose-driven branding.

Combining the ecosystem perspective of branding with the concept of social emergence allows clarification of brand meaning cocreation at different levels of aggregation. Emergence means collective phenomena – like social structures, concepts, preferences, states, mechanisms, laws and brand meaning – manifest from the interactions of individuals. Drawing on Sawyer's (2005) social emergence perspective, the authors propose a processual multi-level framework to explore brand meaning emergence.

Our framework spans five levels of brand meaning emergence: individual (e.g. employees and customers); interactional (e.g. where work teams or friend groups interact); relational (e.g. where internal and external actors meet); strategic (e.g. markets and strategic alliances); and systemic (e.g. regulators, NGOs and society). It acknowledges that brand positioning is an inherently co-creative process of negotiating value propositions and aligning behaviors and beliefs among broad sets of actors, as opposed to a firm-centric task.

Service research has only recently embraced a macro–micro perspective of branding processes. This paper extends that perspective by paying attention to the nested service ecosystems in which brand meaning emerges and the degree to which this process can (and cannot) be navigated by individual actors.

American Horror Story, with its strong narrative arcs, interesting characters and high production values, is one of the most important horror TV series in the post-millennial years. This chapter will focus on the four roles played by Oscar-winning actress, Jessica Lange in the first four series.